The Battle Of The Spirits
by Liam Holman
Summary: The second chapter of the tale of Simba's two twin sons. A legendary spiritual battle takes place in the Pride Lands, and this causes some to fall under the spell of good and evil spirits. A mysterious rogue threatens the already troubled Pride Lands.
1. One Month Before

**A/N: This is the sequel to The Lion King III (or IV): The Lost Prince. If you haven't read it, I recommend that you do, because it is a great story filled with tears, brothership, friendship, love and bravery. I think it would make a great fourth feature-length film. Another reason to read it is that some parts of this story may not make sense without reading The Lost Prince.**

 **P.S. The Lost Prince has been updated in quality and length, so do make sure to read it if you haven't read the new version.**

The second chapter of this saga shows the events after the return of The Lost Prince, a tragic event that almost separated siblings, a dangerous rogue, a few unexpected visitors and an alliance that will prove vital later on. The Battle of the Spirits is a legendary event that takes place every century as the lions who were killed between two battles exact revenge on their murderers and enemies. Without further ado, let us get on with the story, which starts a month before Kopa's return.

The stars were cloaked by a permanent shadow that lay over the Forest of Sorcery. Not only was Uchawi Forest a place of legends and myths, those who were unfortunate to venture too close were never heard from again. Unwelcome guests would never leave the enchanted woods, for they were imprisoned either by a restricting enchantment or even brutally and mercilessly slaughtered. Only those who entered the vicinity without permission or right knew what happened to those who were unwelcome, and those who possessed the knowledge were dead almost as soon as they trespassed the dark forest. However, one dark-furred lion with scars of war and battle etched over his body entered the forest unhurt by uttering a password.

"Salamu Ibilisi," the lion said in the old tongue of lions, which meant 'All hail Ibilisi'. This short but feared sentence was said by only those who worshiped the God of Death, and this was said by the lion because he was an agent of the ancient terror, and was involved in a scheme to return Ibilisi to the mortal realm, a scheme that had lasted for thousands of years and consumed the lives of many souls who dedicated their lives to this cause, for they were either under spell or were disillusioned by their old life, disatisfied by a lack of power or worth.

The lion calmly walked past leafless trees whose branches towered and arched over the lion, the trees seemed to represent the servants of Ibilisi who lived eons ago,  
frozen and petrified in time, with the twigs acting as the razor sharp claws of the savage soldiers of the enemy of all living things and this thought unnerved the lion slightly. He took care to not place his paws on protruding roots or unseen thorns veiled by the carpet of mist. He stopped when he reached a great cliff split at the centre by a narrow trench, and where the cliff met the floor, there was a cave, a horizontal abyss , and while any sane lion would dash the opposite way without a second thought, the lion calmly walked into the cave. His ears detected movement and cold voices.

"Afua is my name, and to reveal yourselves from the veil of darkness is my command," he said.

"Afua, my loyal minion, what news do you bring?" a low-toned voice asked with mock kindness, for there was no such thing in this lion's heart.

"I have found one of the heirs of Kiburi, though he currently has no memory," was Afua's report.

"Which son of Simba is it?" the voice asked.

"It is ironic, while he knows nothing of himself, you know everything about him," Afua chuckled.

"Afua, I asked you a question, and I expect an answer," the voice demanded with a more serious tone.

"Right, his name is unknown, but he goes by Sahau," Afua said.

As he said this, a white sphere of light brought light to the cave, which battled the darkness that flooded the chasm, and what was seen in the globe was a red-furred lion with emerald green eyes.

"Kopa: A lion who has no memory of his past, yet his future is impressive. Unfortunately for him, he has none," the lion laughed.

Afua's eyes widened. Kopa was once his friend and was told by his parents that he was killed, and this event caused him to lose hope in the future and turn to the lion who just spoke of the one who was revived. Afua was initially confused but decided to comment on his belief or former friendship.

"What is his predicted future, just out of curiosity?" Afua asked.

"He was scheduled to become a great king, leader and warrior, who would help defeat our Lord, would you believe it?" the lion laughed again.

"What will you have me do?" Afua asked.

"I will not have any enemy of ours to grow in strength, I want you to kill him, he has no value to me and will distract our plans," the lion ordered.

Afua took a moment to respond. He was just asked to kill someone he grew up with but then decided that he could not go back on his route to darkness.

"As you wish, Kivuli," Afua obeyed with a bow, though out of fear than respect.

"When the moon replaces the sun, it will begin," Kivuli said.

"What will begin?" Afua asked.

"The Spirit Duel, you fool," Kivuli shouted.

"Oh, right. I'll be off, then."

 **A/N: Who is this Kivuli? And why does he want Kopa dead? All will be revealed later on in the story.**

 **P.S. The first half of the story is based on the first half of TC-96's comic 'Kiara's Reign', and some people may claim that this is a lack of ideas, I say that I am taking my artistic liberty and transferring my own ideas that were inspired by the comic into this story. It's not plagiarism, that's when you take someone else's idea and claiming it to be yours, and I'm clearly stating that the idea belongs to TC-96 and I was _inspired_ by the comic. The second half of this story is based on the second half of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers film. The cubs of Kovu and Kiara belong to 'TC-96' and the cubs of Kopa and Vitani belong to 'MalisTLK', but I changed the parents of Ashiki, Roho and Vituo from K+K to K+V.**

 **P.P.S I've had a few troubles with troll reviewers who are too cowardly enough to possess full accounts so they can hide behind their anonymity. All I can be bothered to say is that non-constructive reviews that are designed to hurt my feelings don't work and will be removed. They say more about the trolls than my ability as a writer, and I admit this isn't my best story, it was one of the first stories I've written.**


	2. Life's Not Fair

**A/N: A chapter added to the updated edition of the story.**

"Kopa stop fretting, it will be alright," Tanabi said to his brother.

"Grr, if only you knew!" Kopa growled in annoyance. He was going to profess his love to someone he recalled only half the things he ever knew about her.

"Kopa, relax. Look at me," Tanabi ordered. "You can do this. Your memory is coming back every day and shows no sign of stopping," he said.

"But what if it stops right now?" he asked with fear. How could he love someone who he knew so little about?

"Kopa, don't think like that. You remembered everything about me, right?" Tanabi said. "What's my favourite grub?" he asked.

"You don't have one, you think they're disgusting," Kopa answered. "Exactly," Tanabi replied.

"Tell me, Kopa, what are you going to do?" Tanabi asked with a smile.

"I'm going to wed the girl of my dreams," Kopa said.

"What are you going to do?" Tanabi asked louder.

"I'm gonna wed the girl of my dreams!" Kopa yelled.

"Whoo! You can do this, brother!" Tanabi encouraged.

"I can do this," he repeated, now pumped up, he confidently made his way to the ceremony and waited for his bride, but thanks to his brother, with less fear than before.

"I never thought this day would come," Simba whispered to his best friend, queen and mate, Nala.

"Me neither," Nala agreed. "I don't think anyone did," she added, acknowledging that Kopa was thought to be dead.

The whispering ceased when Vitani walked down the gap between the pride and a wide smile grew on her graceful face as she gazed at Kopa.

Kopa's face also sported a loving grin as he racked his brains trying to recall any more knowledge of the lioness he was about to marry. All he knew was her name, age,  
favourite things and nothing more.

When Vitani sat next to Kopa at the edge of the promontory of Pride Rock, they licked each other's cheeks and whispered tokens of love to each other.

When Rafiki cleared his throat, he began the vows. "Do you, Kopa, take Vitani as your lawful wedded wife, and do you pledge to love and protect her til de end of your days?" he asked.

"I do," Kopa promised. "I do too," Vitani added, drawing laughter from everyone.

"One thing you must know about me is that I don't like waiting," Vitani said.

"Den dere is nothing else to do but to declare you lawfully wedded!" Rafiki announced and all applauded and some cheered, including Simba, Tanabi and Kovu.

Kopa and Vitani pulled each other into a kiss, but Kopa paused. "Kopa, what is it?" Vitani asked with concern.

"I remembered our first kiss, well, first proper kiss," Kopa said, looking at Kiara who gave a knowing smile, for she remembered that she pushed Kopa into Vitani's lips.

"Really?" Vitani asked, shedding tears of joy and relief, also fearing that she would marry someone who knew half of her.

"Yeah, and it went something like this," Kopa said before giving her a kiss of pure love.

* * *

About five months later, Vitani found herself giving birth to four male cubs.

When discussing the promise made by Vitani to kill Kopa if he got her pregnant again, Kopa asked his father "Was Mom like this when she had me and Tanabi, or Kiara and Kion?"

"Let's say the vocabulary was not as...colourful," Simba chuckled.

"That's probably just Vitani," Kopa guessed.

"What about Kiara? You helped her give birth," Kovu asked.

"Well, Kiara was just terrified, thinking that Afua had killed her cubs before they were born, but yeah, I think that's just Vitani," Kopa laughed lightly.

The screaming stopped suddenly and unexpected, and Kopa's heart dropped and his eyes fixed on the cave, the darkness reflecting his confusion, fear and panic.

When Rafiki revealed himself, he had a concerned expression which greatly troubled Kopa. Had something happened to Vitani or the cubs? Kopa knew that such a number of cubs carried increased risk to life for mother and cubs. Rafiki whispered something in Kopa's ear and he sighed in relief but sadness.

"Rafiki, what's wrong?" Simba asked.

"Dat is only for Kopa to know," Rafiki said and then returned to the cave, followed by Kopa.

Simba decided against embarrassing himself and waited for permission to enter the cave.

Kopa held his breath as he slowly approached Vitani. He saw that she was heartbroken as to why what had happened had done so to her. One of the cubs had died due to the sheer number of cubs being born.

"Vitani..." Kopa whispered in sympathy.

"Why, Kopa, why did this have to happen to us?" she asked through tears of grief.

"I don't know," Kopa began to cry, he asked himself the same question. The two shared a grief-induced nuzzle, and Rafiki said solemnly "De spirit of dis poor cub will find his way to de haven of de dead, and dere he will be at peace, knowing not grief and hurt, but love and life."

Kopa and Vitani's suffering was not over for it was revealed that Roho, the second cub, whose fur was red, was diagnosed with a heart condition, and so was given special attention, and because Ashiki, whose fur was inherited from Nala, was Kopa's heir, Vituo, the youngest cub whose fur matched Vitani's, felt left out.

One day, when a lioness complained to Kopa that Vituo bullied her daughter, Kopa was concerned and decided to speak to his son.

"Vituo, I've heard that you've been bullying Nuru," Kopa said to his son.

"What? I didn't do anything," Vituo defended in vain.

"Son, if you lie to me, matters will only get worse," Kopa warned.

"Okay," Vituo sighed. "I admit I said some mean stuff to her but I told her it was banter," Vituo argued.

"Banter, huh?" Kopa remembered how Afua hid behind the banter excuse and how he turned out.

"Let me tell you about someone who always used to tease me about my flaws, and he always used banter as an excuse," Kopa said.

"When I was your age, one of my friends, if you can call him a 'friend', was Afua, and I'm not saying you remind me of him, I'm just telling you: There's no use in bullying, it only demoralizes your friends, and eventually you'll lose them," Kopa warned his youngest cub.

"What happened to Afua?" Vituo asked, catching Kopa off guard. He didn't want to tell such a violent and confusing truth. "I'll tell you when you're older," Kopa said.

"Now, why don't we go and apologise to Nuru," Kopa suggested.

"Okay," Vituo agreed.

Vituo had his apology accepted by Nuru and her mother, and from that day on, they remained good friends, but his best friends were his brothers and cousins.  
He and the others would play at the water hole, but Leah, whose disability affected her confidence, preferred the company of adults. Kiara tried to encourage her to play with the cubs, but she would fall over when she tried to take part in the running-based games and so decided against taking part.

However, the cubs would play most days at the water hole and most days were uneventful, but one day gave no indication that a tragic event would occur.

The day in which everything changed started like any other day. Kiara's cubs were the first to leave for the water hole. Laughter and excitement echoed in the cave,  
and Asha and Koda ran out of the cavern of old. Behind them limped Leah.

"Hey, wait for me," she called. Behind her was her mother, light orange-furred Kiara with kind amber eyes.

"Wait for Leah," she instructed her eldest cubs. As Leah approached a loose stone, Kiara saw it too late and Leah's front legs landed and failed in trying to balance herself, and somersaulted in the air. Kiara gasped and rushed to the aid of her youngest cub.

"Are you okay?" she asked. "That was quite a fall," she commented.

"Yes, it's not like I haven't fallen over that stone a hundred times before," she answered with frustration.

"I know your leg annoys you, but you have to try to live with it," Kiara said.

"I'm so lame, I can't even run five meters without falling over, one of these days, I'm going to hurt someone, I might as well stay here," she said.

Kiara felt hopeless, but then an idea popped into her mind. "Well, if you're so lame, perhaps you wouldn't want to spend the day with the others at the watering hole."

Leah's eyes jolted wide open. She always enjoyed the company of her elder relatives. "Well, maybe it wouldn't hurt if I left the cave just this once," she said at length. Kiara smiled as she followed her youngest daughter to the water hole.

 **A/N: Poor Leah, she's one of those 'I can't do anything right' people, but I just say 'you're doing what you're doing right, and that's being you'. I decided to focus more on Kopa's cubs when renewing the chapters, evening out the focus between the two sets of triplets. I also decided to add some tragedy, for every happy moment there will come a sad one.**  
 **NEXT!**


	3. Argument

**A/N: These first few chapters are based on 'TC-96's 'Kiara's Reign' comic, which can be found on Deviantart. Before any accusations arise, I call it promoting,**  
 **not stealing.**

 **P.S. Roho can play games that require energy, he just needs to have breaks in play every now and then.**

Leah caught sight of her aunts, uncles and cousins at the water hole. She began to run, but at a manageable pace. "Leah, not too fast," Kiara called.

"Yes, Mom," she returned but turned her head and did not see the rock that lay in her path, and because she tripped over, the position she was set to land in would have caused pain. However, she landed in the paws of Vitani.

"Woah, careful, squirt," Vitani laughed.

"Thank you, Vitani," Leah sighed, annoyed yet again at her leg. Leah jumped out of Vitani's paws and decided to join with her siblings and cousins.

"Hey, Leah," Asha called. The boys of the group turned to face the limping cub.

"Oh, great, it's Captain Klutz!" moaned one of the cubs, a light-furred cub with a tuft of brown mane. "Shut it, Vituo," Asha hissed. Vituo immediately obeyed this order, for only a fool would test the temper of Asha.

"C'mon guys, let's play tag," Ashiki suggested. An orchestra of agreement preceded the departure of the four male cubs to their game of tag.

"But..." Leah began. "It's as if I don't exist," she said quietly and sadly. "Hey, we don't need them," Asha said before batting Leah with her tail. "Tag, you're it," she laughed.

Asha ran at a fair pace for Leah to tag her, but the two ran into the game of tag of the four male cubs.

Koda ran behind Ashiki and then pounced, burying his cousin's face in the muddy banks of The Ravine.

"You're it," he growled playfully. "Just to make things interesting, Ashiki and Leah are it," Roho announced. "Say what?" Leah and Asha said in unison.

"That's not fair, you know that Leah can't run with her bad leg," Asha informed, trying to get her cousin to reconsider.

"Oh, it's all about Leah's bad leg, isn't it?" Roho groaned. "Yeah, some prides abandon disabled cubs, Leah's just lucky," Koda added.

"Don't be a hypocrite, Roho, you yourself can't play like us, with your heart" Asha pointed out.

"Guys, guys, let's just calm things down," suggested Ashiki, who feared a brawl of siblings, something he didn't want to see. Being the responsible one, he had the thought and courage to make his voice heard, but it was ignored.

"You know what? I'll say what we're all thinking: Leah's a waste of space!" Koda despicably declared.

Asha gasped in shock at what her own brother said, she could not believe Koda could say such a thing, he was always a kind cub who always pointed out the positives in other people.

"You don't mean that," she shouted. "Admit it," Koda tested Asha's temper.

"Admit what?" she glared at him with anger, her eyes seemed to glow bright and dissolve Koda's arrogance like acid. "Uh, that it's a nice day," he lied.

'Looks pretty cloudy to me,' Leah thought. The dark clouds passed over the sun, showing that a storm was brewing much like the one between the cubs.

"C'mon guys, we don't need to hang around Captain Calamity," Vituo said, forgetting about his father's lecture about bullying and name-calling. And with that, the male cubs left Asha and Leah, whose eyes produced tears, never thinking that her own brother could say such a horrible thing about her.

 **A/N: Oh, Koda, you naughty boy. Then again, I can't really blame him, he's spent too much time with his cousins. Or are they really to blame? NEXT!**

 **P.S. What would happen if two characters in a Disney film had the same name, because I know there is a bear called 'Koda' in Brother Bear. Would this even happen in the first place or would it be allowed as a one-off?**


	4. Tempest

**A/N: This is the first major event of the story.**

The male cubs left Asha and Leah at the water hole and they went upstream of the ravine. The clouds built up over the Pride Lands as Asha and Leah continued to play tag, but Leah built too much speed.

"Ah, no breaks!" she yelled as she collided with Asha with a grunt. They both shook their heads clear of dizziness.

"Sorry, Ash'," Leah said. Asha gave Leah a look of annoyance, yet her expression softened. "Don't worry, no harm was done," she assured.

The clouds began to release the water they carried. "Wait a second, where are we?" Asha asked, not recognising the surrounding scenery that darkened before their eyes. They then noticed the first drops of what quickly became a deluge of rain.

"Oh, no! We're lost in a rainstorm, how could it get any worse?" Leah asked. A nearby flash of lightning preceded a drumming of thunder, rumbling the entire bodies of the cubs.

"It's a lot worse," Asha said. "We need to get home," Leah called through the strengthening downpour.

"First, we have to find the others, then I can give them a piece of my mind," she declared. The grey clouds denied the late afternoon sky, and the visibility was very limited through the heavy rain.

"The river's getting pretty high," Leah commented. Asha's ear twitched when a small shouting was heard. "I hear them," she whispered.

The drenched cubs followed the sounds of their male cousins, with mud squelching between their paws and would cause them to get stuck. Leah was more prone to this and so Asha had to pull her out several times. As the cubs travelled up the river, now a swollen basin of muddy water, they stopped briefly to admire a forked bolt of lightning hit the floor, and the energy reached the cubs in the form of a rumble and this caused a ripple effect in the raging torrent. Asha's ear twitched once more as the sound of her middle cousin was heard. "It's Leah and Asha," Roho called.

"Hey, Koda, Ashiki, Roho, Vituo, we found you!" Asha shouted through the dense rain when another flash of lightning revealed the true colours of the cubs who were soaked to the bone.

"Koda, do you have something to say to Leah?" Asha asked. "Yeah," Koda answered and turned to Leah, but the storm moved faster than Koda's apology, and the soaked fur rose slowly as static electricity built up. A massive flash of forked lightning landed almost next to the cubs, sending them flying through the air.

Leah woke up with a spell of deafening white noise that tortured her ears, and she found herself stranded on an island that was once a small hill between two channels,  
and her quick thinking meant that she climbed a dead but sturdy tree.

"Leah? Koda?" Asha asked with a shout as she shook her head of the daze caused by the explosion of electricity. She found where the male cubs had landed:  
Vituo had landed on his back and had to be shaken back to consciousness. Ashiki landed in a bush but Roho landed in a different tree to Leah. When Asha helped her middle cousin up, she checked to see if his heart was alright, and it was fine, to her relief.

When Asha recovered her brother and cousins she looked around for her sister. "Where's Leah?" she asked, her voice strained with panic.

"I'm over here," Leah called, and to her horror, she saw the now enormous river threatening to sweep away the tree that held Leah.

 **A/N: Oh, dear, Leah's in a bad situation, to say the least. Will Asha be able to save her? All shall be revealed. NEXT!**


	5. Risk

**A/N: The deadly situation continues. This scene was inspired by TC-96's comic about The Lion King where the cubs are caught in a tempest, I just added a bit more.**

Leah hung on the dead tree by the claws. She was using much of her strength to stay on the tree, and the freezing temperature and the heavy weight of the water that soaked through her fur did nothing to help. Much of her energy was lost trying to regulate her body temperature, which had reduced, and Leah's teeth were chattering and her body shivered severely.

"Asha, help!" she yelled for aid. She moved her paw to cling on to a fresh, untouched piece of bark.

"Guys, I need you to get our parents," Asha said. "But, they'd know we were here," Roho countered, knowing that he along with his brothers and cousins would get a lecture on safety, and perhaps punishment, which was usually confinement within the dull, boring and dark cave at Pride Rock.

"GO!" Asha demanded. "Gone," all of the cubs said in unison as they sprinted back to Pride Rock, not wanting to have some responsibility in any accident or any worse outcome. They thought of it no longer, and they dashed through the rain as fast as their cold and tired legs would allow.

Asha surveyed the river for somewhere for Leah to land on, and also saw where the current was strongest: the middle. Further downstream, there was a waterfall, but also a sturdy rock that divided it into two. Asha had an idea that involved her sister risking her life to land on the rock.

"Leah, I need you to drop in," Asha said. "WHAT? ARE YOU CRAZY?" she yelled the question. She couldn't swim because her disabled leg provided no strength.

"Just trust me," Asha insisted.

"Alright," she accepted the risk and took a deep inhalation before letting go of the tree, which was swept away anyway. The force of the current took her breath away and any movement of her limbs was denied by the overwhelming strength.

The current was stronger than Asha predicted, and actually dragged her helpless sister underwater. She gasped, waiting if she could see her sister resurface. Her heart dropped and she held her breath until Leah resurfaced, exactly where she hoped.

Leah dragged herself onto the rock and Asha rushed to a safe side of the gorge after the waterfall. The thunderous noise of the waterfall made the small voice of Leah almost impossible to detect.

"Asha, what now?" Leah's worried voice reached Asha's ears. The raging torrent of water was still rising, and the normally gentle and peaceful waterfall saw many cubic meters of water fall every second.

Asha grabbed a loose but lengthy and strong vine from a nearby tree. She tossed it over to Leah. "Put it in your mouth and try to jump over. If you can't, I'll pull you up!" she explained, shouting over the water.

Leah prepared to jump the couple-meter distance between her and Asha. As her two front legs left the ground as she relied on her one good hind leg to provide the height and length, her bad leg slipped, and her jump failed. Asha's heart dropped again as her sister disappeared down the void. Had she dropped the vine or hit against the wall of the gorge? Questions like these raced through Asha's panicking mind but her body was frozen in horror. She was left waiting for the answer for only a few seconds, but it seemed to her that those seconds lasted for an eternity.

 **A/N: Cliffhanger! Literally! How evil of me to keep you waiting, then again, it does attract you to the next chapter. NEXT!**


	6. Suicide

**A/N: Here we go, the middle of this sub-plot.**

Simba with his sons looked on at the downpour, and into the grey skies above. "They should have come back by now," Simba said, referring to his grandchildren.

"I'll go find them," Kopa offered, but did not need to. Tanabi admired the spectacular scenes of the storm: The forked flashes of lightning, the grey rain bringing cloud,  
the swollen river, he blinked every time rain hit his eye and soon looked towards the river which had flooded and looked like a long mud-coloured ribbon glued to the drenched floor. He then noticed his nephews approaching Pride Rock, their fur soggy and dripping.

"No need to," laughed Tanabi as he felt sorry for the cubs, he had the unfortunate experience of being caught out in the first downpour of the rainy season before.

"Hang on, where's Asha and Leah?" Kovu asked with confusion. The cubs looked at each other, wondering how to structure the news.

"Dad, Asha and Leah need help, they're near the Gorge!" Ashiki explained.

"What?" Kopa shouted furiously. "What were you doing there?" he yelled in disappointment. "Told you," Roho whispered.

"Uh, Asha and Leah wanted to explore there themselves, we tried to tell them not to but they insisted," Vituo lied. Kiara narrowed her eyes.

"My girls know to come back straight away when it rains," she said. "Dad, Kovu, Kopa, let's go find them."

"Do you think they believed me?" Vituo asked. Roho gave his brother a right hook. "You idiot, you know fully well that they don't believe us, and now we're in a hole of trouble when Dad gets back!" Roho shouted in anger.

"Roho, your heart," Ashiki reminded his brother.

* * *

Asha's heart skipped a beat. She dug her claws into the saturated ground but feared Koda's earlier comments may have triggered suicidal intentions. Asha grunted in relief, a strange way to show relief, when she felt a weight tug at the vine. She did not sigh because she would relax, and this was no time to relax. The claws acted as an anchor in the wet floor and kept both cubs where they were.

Both cubs were shivering for the cold rain continued to fall in bucket-loads. Asha tried to pull the weight with her mouth, but it was too heavy.

Asha looked down and noticed that Leah was only holding onto her life by the mouth. She did not dig her claws into the rock of the deep gorge.

"Leah, hold on!" she shouted. Leah could hear her sister but did not even try to dig her claws into the gorge. Instead, she grabbed on to the vine and allowed herself to speak.

"Asha, you've been the best sister anyone could ask for, you protected me from bullies, you made me laugh when I was nearly crying. But, you're more important than me,  
she said sadly but was cut off by her sister, whose eyes glazed in tears.

"You're just as important as me!" she cried, knowing that Leah was saying her last words and trying to convince her sister to rethink her fatal decision.

"I am nothing but a burden. Like Koda said, I'm a waste of space," she said. Asha produced tears and shook her head in disbelief.

"I'm sorry," was her final words, before she released the vine and dropped into the abyss below. "NOOOOOO!" Asha screamed and let go of the vine. She slipped and almost fell herself, but Kiara grabbed her by the scruff just in time.

 **A/N: Oh, no! Poor Leah, and poor Asha seeing her sister commit suicide...or does she? NEXT!**


	7. Aftermath

**A/N: Let's see how everyone reacts to this tragic event.**

Asha could not believe what had just happened. She had just witnessed her own sister willingly release the only thing keeping her alive, and it was all because of her failure to save her, or because of Koda's cruel comments, or both. Which reason was the critical one, she did not know, she did not care to know, because she was so traumatized, so traumatized at what happened, she did not move a muscle. When Kiara gently dropped he eldest daughter, she lay on her side, shivering in shock and coldness, but eventually found the will and strength to sit up.

"Asha, where's Leah," Kiara asked with worry. She feared she already knew the answer to her own question.

Asha breathed rapidly and unevenly. "S-she f-fell," she stuttered.

"What?" Kiara gasped. Her eyes widened in horror and disbelief.

"I-I tried to save her, but she let go," Asha cried. Kiara gasped as she looked down the abyss that Leah had fell down. A tear streamed down her rain-drenched face and joined the rainwater on the floor.

"No...no, no, no, NO!" she whispered and then yelled. She buried her head in Kovu's mane and cried loudly.

Asha also hugged her parents. Kopa interrupted the sad moment.

"We have to search for her," he announced.

"What?" Kiara asked. She wanted to grieve, not search for a dead body.

"There's a chance she may still be alive," Kopa said, knowing that he had once fell from a cliff next to a waterfall, and landing in the water at the bottom was the reason he was at this tragic scene.

"Kopa's right, we can't grieve until we find a body," Kovu commented, not wanting to go through uneccesary grief.

"If we find nothing after tomorrow's sun set, we will have to presume her dead," Simba said. Asha looked horrified and devastated, and another tear was drawn from her eye by the emotion of the event.

"Then again, were do presumptions get us?" he asked. Simba was said to be dead along with his father, but that was until Nala had found him, and their child, Kopa,  
even though he died in Simba's paws, still returned to life and to his parents. This gave Asha an ounce of hope, and so too for Kovu and Kiara.

* * *

Back at Pride Rock, Tanabi was keeping the mischievous cubs in check, and when he saw that the lions that left to find two cubs in danger, he smiled when he saw Kovu carrying Asha by the scruff, but it faltered when he noticed the grim expressions on their faces, and was wiped of when he noticed that Leah was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Leah?" he asked when the grief stricken lions arrived before his feet. The lions looked at each other sadly. "What happened?" he asked. He was sometimes frustrated when people didn't answer his questions, but he knew to keep his feelings to himself.

"Leah fell from the gorge," Kiara said as she succumbed to tears once again. Tanabi gasped. "Oh, my! Oh, that's horrible," he comforted, hugging his sister.

The Lion Guard had returned from rescuing the animals of the Pride Lands from problems caused by the biblical downpour and floodwaters, and Kion sensed that something bad and personal had happened, so suggested that the other Lion Guard members went back to their homes.

The storm finished in the early hours of the morning and this was when the pride searched for the body of Leah, but unfortunately, no body was found, for Leah had traveled by river far further than anyone had imagined: Malka's Pride.

 **A/N: Next we shall see if Leah is indeed dead, or if she will help form a crucial alliance for later events?**


	8. Mala

**A/N: I read 'TC-96's comic up until the Stargazing scene, and then I decided to do a story about how the spirits return to exact revenge their murderers or avenge those who they loved who have been killed. I then originally had Kovu die after being possessed by evil spirits, but I feel that Kovu deserves more time in this saga.**  
 **So instead, I decided to have him (spoiler alert) killed in The Battle of the Eight Armies.**

That night, Koda slept not by his mother's side like he usually would, but alone in a small cave. He was found when Asha was looking for Koda to comfort him. She figured that he felt guilty for believing that he had caused the death of his sister by his own cruelty, but Asha knew now that it was an accident, and nothing could have prevented the storm that put Leah's life in danger.

She found him facing the end of the cave, curled up in a ball of fur. "Koda, are you not sleeping with us?" Asha asked.

"No, I don't deserve such noble company, not after what I said about Leah," he said. Asha knew that she wasn't going to persuade him, so she decided to join him.

"I was going to apologise to her, but now I may never be able to," he said sadly, his eyes becoming glossy. "It's my fault she's dead, I'll never forgive myself," he added.

"Hey, we don't know for sure that she's dead, this Pride has a history of those who return from the dead, just like grandpa, and uncle Kopa," Asha listed. Koda now had a bit of hope but was still unforgiving of himself.

"If it helps, I forgive you," Asha said. Koda then produced a small smile.

* * *

The place that Leah's body washed up on the shore was a mountainous and arid place. This place was the territory of Malka, son of Mshirika. An old friend of Simba's and temporarily adopted brother, that was until Malka's mother collected him after wandering astray from his pride.

Malka was the King of the Northern Mountain Pride, and his Queen was Tama, his childhood love, and with her, he had four cubs, Sadaka, Imani, Sefu and Mala.

When Simba and Nala's first two cubs turned out to be twin girls, with no male cubs in the pride and very few rogues around (though Simba didn't trust rogues as kings)  
all because of the evil tyranny of Scar's reign, Malka offered to betroth them to his eldest sons, with Shani betrothed to Sadaka and Aisha due to marry Imani.

Shani and Tama were on patrol when the two lionesses discovered a strange shape that had not been seen there before.

"What's that down there?" Shani asked her mother-in-law.

"I don't see anything," Tama said. "I think the heat is getting to your head," Tama joked.

"Over there, that brown thing," Shani pointed to the brown object that had travelled by the river, now but a stream amongst parched land. The object was now covered in dust and sand for it had lay motionless throughout the night.

"Oh, yeah," Tama conceded.

"Are your eyes going funny?" Shani laughed at the older lioness.

Tama sighed in embarrassment. "It's probably just a rock, stay focused on the task," Tama instructed.

"But it's so boring," Shani moaned. "There hasn't been a rogue sighting in weeks!" she said.

"You never know when danger will strike," Tama said. "Now focus on the task," Tama added but saw that Shani was already next to the object of discussion.

"Or you can ignore me and do your own thing," Tama muttered.

Shani sniffed the object, and she knew that this was anything but a rock. She removed the dust and sand that covered the motionless thing and gasped as she saw the unconscious form of Leah.

"It's a cub!" Tama gasped as she joined Shani at the stream. Shani picked up Leah's limp body and asked "Is she dead?" with worry.

Tama inspected Leah for any trauma and found nothing. She then put her ear against the little cub's chest and detected a heartbeat.

"No, this cub is alive, thank the stars, I wonder where she's from," Tama wondered.

"Or what happened to her," Shani added.

"Let's go see Malka, he'll know what to do," Tama said and both lionesses left the scene.

"Malka, there's something you must see," Tama said as she entered a sandy cave to the north of the discovery of Leah's body.

"What is it?" a weary voice asked, the owner of this voice had been woken from sleep.

"A cub," Tama answered bluntly. Malka frowned at the answer in confusion.

"Where did the cub come from?" Malka asked.

"We don't know, but we found her by the stream," Shani said.

Malka sniffed the cub, and everyone but Leah screamed when Malka yelped in surprise.

"What? What is it?" Tama asked frantically.

"A spider!" Malka shouted, having a fear of the eight-legged creatures.

Tama sighed in annoyance. "Never mind the spider, what about the cub?" she reminded Malka.

"Right, uh, she comes from the Pride Lands," Malka announced.

"Wow, she must have come via the Great River," Shani concluded.

"Perhaps a victim of the storm down south," Malka predicted correctly.

"What shall we do?" Tama asked her mate.

"We shall keep her safe here until one of the Pridelanders come," Malka said.

"And if they don't?" Shani asked.

"We'll keep her," Malka said.

"What if she's one of Simba's grandcubs?" Tama said.

"This cub has little value, look, her left leg has no reflex," Malka commented.

"I haven't heard any news from my father, I hope he hasn't forgotten me," Shani said.

"He wouldn't forget you, Shani, or Aisha. Being the King of the Pride Lands is no easy task," Tama said.

"Simba has certainly forgotten me, twice now we have lit our beacon and there has been no reply," Malka commented.

"Are you using this cub as payback?" Tama accused in the form of a question.

"What? No!" Malka denied.

* * *

The first sight of Malka's territory through Leah's eyes was two big blue orbs that belonged to Mala, which surprised both to say the least. Leah screamed in surprise because she didn't expect to see the eyes as close as she did, and Mala screamed too because Leah screamed.

When both calmed down, Mala said "Whew, I thought you were dead for a second there."

"I don't understand," Leah said.

"Well, when you lie real still..." Mala began.

"No, I mean, how did I get here?" she asked.

"Well, some say you just appeared outta nowhere, but, y'know, that's impossible," Mala explained.

Leah gasped as she remembered how she got in this situation "The Gorge!"

"A gorge? That's how you got here?" Mala asked in confusion. She thought she meant that Leah travelled by a gorge, but this was not true.

The next thing she knew, Mala saw Leah crying. Feeling sorry, she went to comfort her.

"I'm sorry, I'm being stupid," Leah sniffed. "No, don't worry about it," Mala said, trying to assure her new friend.

"Y'know, if you're up to it, I know where to see the sunset from a beautiful vantage point," Mala offered.

Leah's head rose and she wiped the tears from her eyes. "Y'know, that actually sounds quite nice," she said.

"Great, I'll race ya there!" she declared but stopped when Leah immediately fell over due to a bad launch caused by her bad leg.

"Then again, you have just woken up, perhaps a walk would be better," she reasoned.

And so Leah and Mala walked to a small mountain. Mala easily jumped the ledges and rocks, but poor Leah had to pull herself up and often fell down a couple of levels.

By the time Leah had reached the top, Mala was story-telling about cave creatures, thinking that the visitor was behind her.

"And that's pretty much how I learned not to stick your head in caves. Oh, there you are," she concluded. "Look," she pointed at the stunning sunset.

"Where are my manners?" Mala asked herself, muttering. "What was that?" Leah asked, not hearing what Mala was saying.

"I never asked your name," Mala said, going right up to Leah, who thought they were going to bump heads, so she quickly slumped onto her side.

"It's Leah," she said, getting up. "Mine's Mala, don't worry 'bout being a bit of a klutz, they say I'm one too because I don't pay attention and..." she was saying but her statement proved to be true as she screamed and fell down about a meter down the mountain. Leah gasped and rushed to see if her new friend was okay.

"See? Klutz!" Mala repeated. After dusting herself off, she got back up to the top and said "So, a little birdie told me that you come from the, uh, Proud Lands."

Just then, a small, blue bird swooped into the scene and corrected Mala. "The Pride Lands."

"Yeah...that's what I said," she claimed.

Leah looked down, remembering what Koda said about her. "Well, I don't really wanna talk about it."

"Hey, that's cool, we don't have to if you don't wanna, anything else you wanna do, just name it," Mala offered.

Leah thought about what she used to do with her family: stargazing.

"Over there, it looks like two duelling lions," Leah described a cloud of dust and gas visible from this planet.

"Cool," Mala simply replied, too amazed to say anything else.

"And that one looks like a rabbit," Leah spoke of another cluster.

"To me, it looks like an upside down meerkat with a big nose," Mala said, drawing controlled laughter, for that comment made Leah remember her meerkat friend, Timon,  
and in turn, other aspects of home and recent events. Her smile faltered as a result.

"I've never done this before. It's amazing. What made you think of this?" Mala asked of stargazing.

"Well, I, uh," Leah tried to piece together such a delicate subject at this early stage since the tempest, and her thoughts turned to Koda's comments.

Just before Leah could let the words roll off her tongue, Mala's mother, Tama, had discovered the cubs watching the stars from the hillside.

"I see you've made a new friend," Tama said to Mala, who ran towards her mother and gave her a loving nuzzle on her front leg.

Leah had an ounce of fear that she would soon be abandoned by the lioness, but her mind was put to rest when Tama spoke.

"Don't worry, Leah, I will protect you as if you were my own," she assured the young cub.

"I understand that you're from the Pride Lands," Tama said. Leah nodded sadly, and so Tama decided to speak again.

"This pride is an ally to the Pride Lands. In fact, Simba is my cousin, and Malka's friend," Tama revealed.

"Simba? He's my grandfather," Leah revealed her own veil of secrecy.

"What?" Tama gasped.

"Is there a problem?" Leah asked.

"Yes, I mean, you're an heir to the throne, I mean, how could they give up on you?" Tama asked with disgust at her cousin.

"Well, to be honest, they never really cared for me anyway, with my leg, I never felt I belonged there anyway," Leah admitted.

"When the storm came, and I got trapped on the island, I just wanted to get swallowed up and dragged underneath the water, never to resurface, I just wanted it all to end, the suffering, the cruelty, my life. It just all built up to a point that I dropped myself from a cliff," Leah said.

"You wanted to kill yourself?" Tama asked with tears in her eyes. How could one so young and innocent wish to end their own life because they were unloved, she asked herself.

"I'm glad you didn't kill yourself, otherwise I would have never met you," Mala said, and Leah's reaction was a smile of relief. She had now a friend to call her own.  
However, she still missed her sister.

"Can I stay here," Leah asked Tama, who sighed and held no secure answer.

"I will see what I can do, I will speak with Malka and Simba," Tama said.

"But before that, can I go back home, one more time?" Leah requested.

"But I thought you said you didn't fit in," Tama said, confused at Leah's contradictory request.

"Yeah, but there was one who would always stand up for me and would make my day better, and that was my sister," Leah said.

A/N: I improvised some of the stargazing scene and everything after that, so everything after this belongs (mostly) to me. The rest belongs to TC-96.  
I also believe that I used some semi-canon characters in place of TC-96's original characters.


	9. Fall

**A/N: The second sup-plot in this story, and it does not have a happy ending.**

The days passed slowly for the ones closest to Leah and the sons of Kopa never created mischief again after the incident at The Gorge, while Asha was emotionally scarred, having apparently seen her sister commit suicide. However, one day would change her life forever, which would also see her life threatened. The day started like any other day, and there was no sign that what would happen later that day would happen. The male cubs were doing their usual activity, and Asha spent her day with her parents until she was asked to accompany the boys and to keep them in order.

"Okay, guys, let's not do anything stupid," Ashiki suggested.

"Yeah, don't forget what happened last time we did something stupid," Roho agreed.

Asha's smile shown when she was with her brother and cousins disappeared, she knew what time the others were talking about. Vituo then looked at something that was on the horizon, something that was on the other side of an obstacle: The Canyon.

"Hey, what's that other there?" he asked.

"Looks like a rogue," Asha observed.

"Eh, we're on this side, he's on that side," Koda said.

"Well, a rogue is a rogue, and all rogues must be reported, and it doesn't look like Mheetu," Ashiki said.

"Vituo? Roho?" Asha asked but heard no answer.

The two younger sons of Kopa stared at what had caught their attention, a black lion, whose finer details were hard to determine, but this lion had some sort of power  
that made the two cubs move towards the cliff edge. Their ears were tortured with strange shrill noises, whispers and screams, some of which had never been heard by the confused cubs before. Their vision was distorted by the lion's power, whose coloration changed from black to red. In the corners of their eyes, flames danced and grew. All of this terrified the cubs, but they did nothing but advance slowly towards the edge.

"What're you doing?" Ashiki asked. Everyone rushed to them as they were one step from plunging to death, but they took one step too far.

Asha was the only one who didn't drop, and as she could only look in horror as her relatives fell further down the canyon, she froze in memory of what happened to Leah. The whole world went silent for Asha, she ignored the wind brushing against her fur and prayed that the screams wouldn't be cut short permanently. To her relief, they weren't. The cubs bounced off a ledge, which kept them only hurt. "Sorry," Roho said after the other cubs landed on him.

"What was that all about?" Ashiki asked with a hint of anger. "You could've got us all killed!"

"Asha!" Koda called. When Asha finally regained her senses, she responded. "Yeah?"

"Is there a way back up?" Koda shouted this question. "No," Asha yelled after looking in each direction and seeing a vertical wall of sandstone either way.

"Well, I guess we'll have to go to the end," Roho suggested.

"Which way is the shortest way?" Koda asked.

All four cubs looked at the way where the clouds darkened. "The Elephant Graveyard," Ashiki said.

A long silence was broken by the troublemaker that was Vituo. "C'mon, it's the shortest way, and there isn't even anyone there, it's just got a bad reputation," he said.

"A deserved reputation if there ever was one," Roho added.

"Asha, we're gonna have to go to the graveyard, it's the only way," Koda shouted.

Asha sighed and then called "Okay."

The four cubs in the canyon and Asha on the cliff edge all made the journey to the Elephant Graveyard.

 **A/N: Who was that lion? Why did it make Vituo and Roho walk over the edge? Those questions will be answered soon. First, we have to endure what happens in the EG. NEXT!**


	10. Hyenas

**A/N: Get ready for new characters, shocking returns and deadly situations in the next few chapters.**

By the time the five cubs reached the Elephant Graveyard, the time of day was afternoon, and Vituo was the first to share his thoughts. "Well, we're here, we might as well go in," he said.

"Um. No. How do we know that no one lives there?" Asha asked.

"Dad said no one lived there when he came here," Roho said.

Koda wasn't listening to the other cubs' comments, and something made him promptly advance into the final resting place of elephants.

"Koda, what are you doing?" Asha asked. Koda paid no attention. He pushed past his sister's attempts to stop him.

"It's as if he's possessed," Roho said. He was.

Koda continued, and by the time they managed to stop him, they were in the middle of the graveyard.

"Oh, great, now we're lost," Asha said.

Koda shook his head and asked "What happened? Where are we?"

Something was clearly amiss, and the group heard a cackle, an unexpected one at that. It was hyenas, the enemy species of the lions who were said to have abandoned the seismic environment, but had either returned or never even left.

Green and yellow eyes surrounded the cubs, who were about to be ambushed with no defence other than their little courage.

Slowly, hyenas crept out of their dens and approached the terrified cubs. Growling and cackling as they cornered the cubs.

"Well, well, well, we have ourselves a buffet of cubs!" a female hyena proclaimed.

"Yeah, look at all of the variety," another said. A third laughed insanely.

"Yeah, that's what I thought, Ed, they've walked to their doom!" the second one to speak said.

Asha had a surge of bravery and before one of the hyenas could strike, she clawed him in the face.

"RUN!" she yelled to the other cubs, and all promptly dashed in the direction of the Pride Lands.

Asha heard the hyena that was behind her, and before the carnivore could pounce, she moved out of the way, and the hyena was left chomping on a rock.

As the cubs turned a corner, a pain pulsed from Asha's ankle. She had twisted her ankle, and the cubs stopped. "Asha!" Koda shouted, seeing if she could move fast enough.

"Don't worry about me, go get our parents!" she ordered. Koda nodded and the uninjured cubs ran back to Pride Rock.

The fear and panic that had tainted the cub's brains caused them to forget about Roho's weak heart, and even though the healthy cubs had a pain in their ribs at the most, Roho's sheer pain slowed him down and tortured his chest without mercy, and he would be the meal of the pursuing hyenas had he not dropped through a sudden chasm, one of the many traps created by the hyenas to guarantee them an easy meal out of the poor souls who had ventured the wrong way.

Roho's weak heart could not endure the pace and power of the beats, and with sweat pouring from his paw pads, his vision darkened, but if it was through death, loss of consciousness or the evil darkness that resided in this hole, he did not know. All he knew that his chest pain was relentless, and he clenched the zone of unending pain until he heard similar sounds and saw similar things to the earlier incident, and before he could see the pitch black figure jump at him, he felt a quick pain in his neck and felt blood gushing through a deep wound, and his world was ended.

* * *

Asha was quickly surrounded, almost as fast as her cousin's death, though she did not know that Roho's life had been brutally cut short. She backed up against a wall and her heart sank when she felt the cold stone that stopped her from reversing any further. She closed her eyes in fear and regret as she knew that there was no way out of this situation, save a miracle.

"Finally, we're gonna get a taste of cub sandwich!" a fourth speaker said, a hyena who had caused many problems for the Pride Lands: Janja.

"Ooh, what's the filling?" one of his half-wit associates asked. "Furbrains," Janja sighed.

As the hyenas closed in, Asha averted her face as she braced for the pain, but then she had another surge of bravery and swatted Janja.

She then kicked with her good leg a hyena who pounced next to her, but then all of the hyenas jumped at the cub, and Asha screamed as hundreds of claws scratched and pierced, and hundreds of razor-sharp teeth sank into her skin. She then heard a range of roars before the only thing she could see was blood streaming into her eyes and unconsciousness taking over.

Ashiki, Vituo and Koda continued to run even though their chests were hurting. They then reached a dead-end: A cliff that was too high to climb, and they knew that there was no way to escape, and they hoped that the hyenas had somehow lost their way or forgot about them.

"Where did Roho go?" Ashiki asked with panic set deeply into his mind. His thoughts included Roho's heart condition, and Vituo had the same thoughts.

"Oh, no! Roho could be having a heart attack for all we know!" he cried.

"Oh, this is the death of us all!" Koda yelled hopelessly.

"Get a hold of yourself you two! By the end of this day, we will all be sleeping in the safety of Pride Rock, everything's going to be fine," Ashiki said, being the brave leader he was at his tender age, showing signs of a worthy king.

The cubs slowly turned their heads to look in horror at the hyenas who prowled towards the helpless cubs. Koda and Vituo held tightly to Ashiki, who instead of whimpering like his brother and cousin, his only sign of fear was the wide eyes of realisation that he was going to be killed unless something miraculous happened.

The hyenas prepared to end the lives of the cubs and decided to instil fear, panic and suffering by intimidatingly advancing mercilessly slowly to end their short lives,

but this plan was interrupted by a growl of a lioness.

The hyenas growled in frustration and approached the lioness, but they severely underestimated the skill of the lioness.

"You're on private property," the hyena said, and the lioness grabbed his head and smashed it against a cliff wall, and before the female hyena could escape, the lioness pounced.

"Please, don't hurt me!" the hyena pleaded. "I'm not going to hurt you," the lioness assured, to the hyena's short relief. "I'm going to kill you."

The lioness slit the throat of the hyena, and blood squirted from the jugular, and a red puddle formed next to the head.

The cubs looked on in horror, never before had they seen such savagery, so much blood. They remained in their position until the lioness spoke. "Don't worry, I wouldn't hurt my own nephews."

 **A/N: Who is this ruthless but friendly lioness? That question will be answered later. Also, what happens to Asha will be revealed. NEXT!**

 **P.S. Roho's death was part of my renewal of the series and gives just a hint of the brutal future of the cubs.**


	11. Return of Leah

**A/N: Who is this mystery lioness? How will Roho be discovered? Will Asha survive? Continue reading to find out.**

The hyenas cried in fear as three furious lions came flying into the scene. Kovu, Tanabi and Simba swiped hyenas out of their path to Asha and they fled in fear.

Simba managed to corner Janja, and finally was able to serve justice, but being the merciful lion, he only gave him a deadly verbal warning. "How many times must I warn you?  
If you ever harm one of our own again, you will not live to tell your miserable tale," he warned. Janja nodded nervously and ran away.

"Asha," Kovu gasped. "We need to get her to Rafiki," Tanabi said. Kovu picked his eldest daughter by the scruff and briskly returned.

"Thank the spirits that Zazu was about," Tanabi said.

"What was Asha doing there anyway?" Simba asked. Kovu remained silent, all he wanted to do was to get his daughter home.

About halfway between the point of rescue and the exiting of the graveyard, Tanabi halted and had a troubled glare.

"Tanabi, c'mon, we need to get Asha to Rafiki!" Simba said.

"I feel something horrible has happened," Tanabi said.

"Yeah, my daughter just got attacked!" Kovu answered through gritted teeth.

"No, something much worse," Tanabi countered.

"How can anything be worse than Asha being attacked?" Kovu asked furiously, but earned a frown from Simba, and the darker lion gave Simba an apologetic look

"A darkness draws my gaze down there," Tanabi commented, looking down a black path down a ridge.

"You go and get Asha to Rafiki, I'll investigate," Tanabi said and his father and brother-in-law dashed towards Rafiki's tree.

Tanabi followed the horrific stench of the rotting flesh of deceased elephants, but more worryingly, fresh blood. The scent of hyenas had long disappeared, and so had the other lions, and then he heard a harrowing shriek and dashed towards the source of the sound, and skidded to a halt just before a crevice, and before his eyes was the sight of his nephews and an unfamiliar lioness.

"Koda, Ashiki, Vituo!" Tanabi called.

"Uncle Tanabi, thank Aiehu you're here!" Ashiki cried.

"Where's Asha?" Koda asked.

"She's on her way to Rafiki's tree, and that's her best chance of survival," Tanabi assured the cubs.

"Survival? What happened to her?" the cubs asked having only known that she had twisted her ankle.

"She..she was attacked by the hyenas," Tanabi said. The cubs gasped in shock.

"Where's Roho?" Tanabi asked. "We don't know," the cubs answered.

"Alright, uh, I'll go and look for him," Tanabi said.

"Do you need my help?" Shani asked.

"Oh, where are my manners? My name is Tanabi," Tanabi introduced himself.

"Yes, I know who you are, because you're my brother," Shani rolled her eyes.

"Oh, yes of course, Shani, I almost didn't recognise you," Tanabi chuckled, and then slid down the cliff that barred the cubs from escape.

"I guess two pairs of eyes are better than one," Tanabi accepted Shani's offer.

"First, we have to take the cubs home," Tanabi said, and they did just that.

* * *

When Rafiki's tree was in view, Simba called for the mandrill's services. Rafiki gasped in shock as he saw the bloody wounds and scratches covered her body, and blood dripped from a notch in her ear.

Rafiki cracked open a guord and put some juice on her wounds, and said "She must stay with me until she wakes." Kovu reluctantly gave Asha to Rafiki's care, but knew that she was in the best possible care.

Back at Pride Rock, Simba saw someone he did not expect to see: His eldest daughters, Shani and Aisha. Shani had several resemblances with Sarabi, and Aisha shared physical traits with Nala.

"Shani? Aisha? Well, this is a surprise," he commented.

"Hi, Dad," Shani greeted as she nuzzled her father.

"Dad, we have brought someone with us," Aisha announced, and she called for someone who was thought to be dead, and sure enough, Leah limped out of the cave and the Pridelanders gasped.

"Leah?" Koda asked, making sure he was not imagining his younger sister's return.

"Yeah, it's me, sorry I didn't come back sooner," she apologized.

"Leah, where were you?" Kiara asked.

"I was with Malka's pride. Tama, Aisha and Shani took great care of me, I made some friends, but then I wanted to come back," she explained.

"I'm so glad you're back," Kiara said, crying tears of joy, as well as holding her in a tight hug.

"I'm glad I'm back too, Mom," Leah replied.

When everyone went inside the cave of Pride Rock, Leah noticed that Asha was not there. "Where's Asha?" she asked.

Everyone looked sad, and then Kiara spoke up. "Asha was attacked by hyenas," she said.

Leah gasped. "Is she okay?" she asked.

"She's with Rafiki, so she's going to be okay," Simba promised.

"Roho isn't here, either," Asha commented.

"Where is he?" Kopa asked with panic set deep in his heart.

"We don't know," Ashiki said.

"You just left him there? Who knows what is going through his mind, or what has already happened to him?" Kopa frantically asked.

"Kopa, Kopa, calm down," Tanabi urged. "Me and Shani are going to find him," Tanabi said.

"I'm coming with you," Kopa insisted.

"No..." Tanabi began. "He's my son!" Kopa shouted with his face almost touching his brother's.

"Kopa, something in my heart tells me that you shouldn't come," Tanabi revealed, and Kopa backed off, allowing his siblings to depart.

"So, boys, tell me why you were in the Elephant Graveyard," Kopa said.

"Well, we were by the Canyon..." Ashiki began.

"The Canyon?" asked a furious Kopa, who was angry that his cubs had disobeyed him.

"Yes, I know we're not allowed there," Ashiki mumbled. "Anyway, then something weird happened, Vituo and Roho caused us to fall down the cliff," he explained but saw his father's horrified expression. "Don't worry, we're fine," he said exasperatedly. "Don't worry? You could've been hurt, or worse!" Kopa shouted.

"Kopa, don't be so harsh," Simba said.

"Sorry, it's just, if anything happened to any of you, I don't know what I'd do," Kopa said.

"It's alright, Dad, but it's all very weird. Vituo said he saw a black lion, and he said he had some sort of power that drew him to the edge," Ashiki reported.

"Yeah, and then Koda acted weird too, he just walked into the Elephant Graveyard as if he had no control of what he was doing," Roho said.

"This is all very strange. It's sounds like...uh, never mind," Tanabi said, he was about to compare this situation with Ibilisi, but he felt his father needn't worry about it.

"What? What's it like?" Simba asked. "It's nothing," Tanabi insisted.

"Well perhaps it could solve the mystery," Simba suggested.

Tanabi sighed. "When you guys were at war," he began, referring to Simba and Kovu, "me, Rafiki and Kion went to Uchawi Forest, because Rafiki spoke of Ibilisi," he finished and the Pridelander adults gasped at the name.

"Who's 'Ibilisi'?" Vituo asked. "You'd better get comfortable," Kopa advised.

 **A/N: If you want to know more about Ibilisi, read 'Discovery of Ibilisi'.**


	12. Mood Swing

**A/N: A story within a story.**

Simba cleared his throat to begin a legendary story. The story of Ibilisi.

"Many years ago, there was a lion called Kiburi. He was the founder of the Pride Lands. That is why it is known as the Kiburi Plateau. Anyway, Kiburi was the First King of the First Age of the Pride Lands, and we're in the Second Age. The people of that era, like we do, worshipped the ones who made this world, well, perhaps more than we do. So, the Creators of Time made a special stone that can manipulate the elements of the mortal realm and would give it to anyone who could defeat the immortal God of Death, Ibilisi, who had betrayed the other Gods by destroying their creations. It was Kiburi who defeated Ibilisi, so he was given not just the King's Stone as it is called,  
but the ability to live on in the soul who would next defeat Ibilisi," Simba told.

"Wow, so is this real, or just a legend?" Leah asked.

"It's a legend, right Dad?" Kopa asked.

"Well, some claim to have seen this being, they say that his voice is the sound of death, his breath is the air of pain, his powers are of his choosing, but of course it is just a myth," Simba said.

"What has this got to do with the lion I saw?" Vituo asked.

"Hopefully nothing, but after what I saw, I'm not willing to trust any rogue, apart from Mheetu," Tanabi said.

"What did this lion look like, Vituo?" Simba asked.

"He had a dark red pelt with a black mane," Vituo described the lion he had seen and saw the horrified expression develop on his grandfather's face. He had described the colours of Scar.

"It can't be," Simba whispered. He was in denial that Scar could possibly return. Perhaps it was a long-lost son, he thought. And that is exactly what the lion was.

"From this day forth, we shall have two patrols a day until this threat is gone, and the cubs must be accompanied by an adult," Simba declared. The others nodded in agreement, while the cubs huffed in frustration.

The next morning, Simba's declaration came into effect, as he did his morning routines, Kopa went on a patrol afterwards, and most reports did not include the mystery lion.

Leah cautiously greeted her sister. "Asha?" she whispered as Asha was still sleepy.

Asha's eyes widened at the hearing of her sister's voice, she had been so convinced that Leah had died, and almost denied her existence, but responded: "Leah, is that you?"

"Yes, it's me, I was with Malka's pride all along," she explained.

Asha walked slowly to limit the pain and softly hugged her sister.

"What happened to you?" Leah asked. "I was attacked by hyenas," Asha said.

"Oh, dear, well, I'm glad you're okay," Leah said.

After Leah told her amazing story to her brother, sister and cousins and friends, Shani came into the cave. She waited until her father turned up.

When Simba came, Shani announced, "It's time to go now, Leah."

"What? What do you mean 'go'? This is her home," Asha argued.

"I'm sorry, but Malka declared her as his own because no-one came for her, she's only here because she begged to come," Shani explained.

"Shani, what are you talking about?" Simba asked.

"I'm sorry, Dad, but Malka has adopted Leah," Shani said.

"What? She's MY daughter!" Kiara shouted.

"Why has Malka done this? Usually, he returns lost cubs, well, the few that are ever lost," Simba asked.

"To tell the truth, Dad, this is sort of payback for not helping Malka when he was at war," Shani explained.

"On two occasions, Malka has lit his beacon and you have failed to respond," Aisha said.

"Well, we haven't had a peaceful couple of years either, we were at war with a crazy lioness, no offence Kovu and Vitani," Simba said. Kovu and Vitani waved it off.

"Also, you have seen that the cubs were attacked by hyenas, and we have a mystery rogue on our hands, so we are pretty occupied at the moment," Kopa added.

Shani sighed. "I wish I could let Leah stay here, but Malka is impossible in negotiations," she said.

"Anyway, I've made more friends there than here, but I'll be able to come back, right Aunt Shani?" Leah asked.

"Yes, Leah, though it will only be temporary," Shani said.

"Well, if we're obviously not good enough for you, then..." Vituo began

"No, no, it's not that, it's..." Leah was cut off by her brother.

"If you like it so much there, then that's fine by me," Koda added.

"Fine, if you're gonna be like that, then I may as well leave. Goodbye," Leah hissed.

Kiara was about to say something, but then Kopa said: "She'll come around, siblings always do."

"I'm not so sure," Kiara said. Kopa suddenly turned to his youngest son in a strange turn of mood.

"Vituo, that is no way to speak to your cousin," Kopa scolded.

"Hey, she's the one who thinks she is better than us," Vituo defended.

"No one thinks they are better than anyone else, it is you who thinks you can say what you want and think it will not affect them. You think that you have more rights than anyone, you think you are superior to others," Kopa yelled at his son, who showed his horror at his father's outburst.

"Kopa, that's enough!" Simba shouted.

"That's not true!" Vituo shouted at his father, trying to convince himself as well.

"My fears have come true, you are no better than Scar himself," Kopa accused his son, whose eyes were nourished with tears and he ran into a dark cavern below Pride Rock.

"Kopa, that was out of order! To tell someone that they are no better than that bastard is not deserved!" he yelled, and then Kopa realised what he had done.

"What have I done? I've lost two of my children, and it is all because of me, I allowed Roho to get lost, I sent Vituo in that cave because of my thoughtlessness,  
I'm a hypocrite," Kopa listed, and then cried in regret. "I'm the worst father in the world!" he claimed.

"You're not the worst father, Kopa, because you are brave enough to admit when you have done wrong, and some things are meant to happen, but we can do nothing about them," Vitani offered support, and Kopa nuzzled his mate and smiled after remembering similar words said by his own mouth.

"I'm sorry about that, I don't know what came over me, perhaps it was because of Roho," Kopa said.

"We don't even know if he is lost, Kopa," Vitani said, producing hope.

* * *

The dark clouds covered the light of the sun, and this did not help the rescue effort of Shani and Tanabi. Any traces of Roho's scent were scarce, and often lead them in circles and dead-ends, but a thought emerged from the deepest parts of Tanabi's mind.

"Do you know if there are any chasms about?" Tanabi asked.

"As if I would know anything of this wretched place," Shani sighed, losing hope of finding anything, but as the two lions walked across a ridge, Tanabi gasped and stopped.

"There's one," Tanabi looked down a black void, darker than the most remote and starless night sky.

As Tanabi observed the chasm, he felt the ground under his paws tremble, and before he could blink a small eruption took place in the volcano, causing a small earthquake, with the hole expanding and eating up the lions.

Tanabi and Shani briefly screamed before landing on an unseen floor with a thud. "Sorry," Tanabi apologised for landing on his sister.

Both lions found their paws and went in a direction that was not blocked off by stone. However, what he would see would cause him a moment of great distress.

Tanabi detected the scent of blood and grimaced before following the strengthening smell. The aroma caused the lion to gag, and when the face of the moon, previously cloaked by a cloud, shone through the many holes in the floor, Tanabi gasped heavily and collapsed in grief. Shani's eyes widened in horror at the brutal scene.

Roho's dead body: A clean but deep cut on his throat, a pool of blood surrounding and staining the poor cub, and the look of terror before his death.  
Tanabi immediately remembered the grief caused by Kopa's 'death', and he froze at the memory of it, covering his mouth in shock and horror.

"What happened to him?" Shani found her voice after overcoming the shock.

Tanabi, still frozen like ice, took longer to respond. "This wound was made by no claw, or rock, it's too...perfectly straight," Tanabi observed.

"You mean a spirit?" Shani asked, and Tanabi answered with a nod.

Tanabi slowly proceeded to close the petrified eyes of Roho. "You shall see no more horrors of this world, dear nephew," Tanabi said solemnly.

"Rest in peace..." Tanabi began the standard farewell of the Pridelanders.

"...in the company of Aiehu," Shani finished.

"What shall we tell Kopa?" she asked.

"He needs to see his son's body," Tanabi said.

"But that would devastate him," Shani argued.

"What would you prefer? To say goodbye to your cub, or to never see him again?" Tanabi asked rhetorically.

"You're right," Shani said, and both made the return journey to Pride Rock.

 **A/N: How will Kopa react to Roho's death? Koda and Vituo yet again cause Leah to leave, this time, she wants to leave. But will she leave at all, or will she come to her senses? Continue reading to find out. NEXT!**


	13. Mourning

**A/N: Here we shall see Kopa reconciling with Vituo, but also mourning Roho.**

"Vituo? Where are you?" Kopa asked into a cave at Pride Rock but was only replied by his echo, but as he turned to walk away, he caught a light-furred cub, tucked away in the deepest corner of the cave, curled up in a ball of fur.

"Vituo," Kopa whispered. Vituo ignored his father, who understood why.

"Vituo, I'm sorry for what I said," Kopa said.

"If you're sorry, why did you say it?" Vituo asked.

"I don't know," Kopa admitted after trying to find a reason. "It just came out like I couldn't control it," he said.

"Rafiki knows de answer," a familiar voice shouted. Rafiki hung upside down from the ceiling of the cave, which brought a smile to the face of Vituo, but an annoyed growl from Kopa's mouth.

"Can't you see we're in a father-son moment?" Kopa asked frustratedly.

"Yes, yes, and do you know what dis moment needs?" Rafiki asked.

"Yeah, you to sod off," Kopa said.

"No, no, no, it needs de answer to de outbursts," Rafiki replied. "Have you heard of de Spirit Duel?" he asked the lions. They both shook their heads.

"Well, allow Rafiki to explain," he ordered.

* * *

Tanabi and Shani returned with grim masks, disturbed by the sight of Roho's dead body, and this troubled Kopa and Vitani, as they knew that the lack of their red-furred son could only mean one thing.

"Kopa," Tanabi said to Kopa's distraught face.

"You don't need to say it, I know," Kopa said.

Vitani burst into tears, wailing "Why? Why, our poor Roho?"

Kopa let his mate rest her weight on him as he hugged her slight frame.

"I'm so, so sorry, Kopa," Tanabi said in sympathy. "I can only imagine what it must be like," he added as he hugged his brother.

"This has been a really shit month for all of us," Kopa sighed sadly.

* * *

The evening had passed into early night, which reflected the solemn and darkening atmosphere amongst the lions who travelled to mourn Roho.

Kopa, Vitani, Simba, Nala, Sarabi, Sarafina, Tanabi, Ashiki, Vituo, Koda, Kovu, Timon & Pumbaa and Rafiki made their way to the resting place of elephants, all fearing the horrific sight Tanabi described.

The new slope crafted by the earthquake was the entrance to the place of Roho's death.

Kopa stopped before the last corner before Roho was sight, after seeing Tanabi, who was in front of him, display a mask of grief as he turned the corner.

"Kopa?" Tanabi asked, noticing the ceasing of motion.

"I don't think I can do it, I don't think I can see my son's dead body," Kopa admitted with tears forming in his eyes.

"I know, Kopa, but if you don't say goodbye, you'll regret it forever," Simba said to his oldest son.

Kopa inhaled deeply, and closed his eyes and allowed Tanabi to guide him around the corner,  
and his lids flickered open, and as soon as his gaze fell upon the feared sight, he slumped into the wall, and cried in irregular breaths.

He slowly walked to the motionless body and collapsed just before he reached his son.  
He crawled over to gently stroke his son, and kissed him.

"My son...my son," Kopa whispered through tears of anguish and utter despair.

"Please...let it be just a dream, let me wake up from this nightmare," Kopa pleaded.

Simba was also brought to tears, for this tragic event returned to him the painful memories of his own son's 'death'.

Vitani joined Kopa in grieving for their son, and Tanabi hugged his brother once again.

 **A/N: If you want an explanation of the Spirit Duel, it is basically a duel in which those who have died in the last century return to fight their murderers or enemies if they had one. There is more to it but I shall say no more.**


	14. Back and Forth

**A/N: Outburst alert! Kovu has a secret to tell.**

Shani and Aisha said their goodbyes to their relatives and wished them the best emotional recovery and future, but Leah waited for them, away from everyone else.

"Leah, are you not saying goodbye to your family?" Aisha asked.

"They're not my family, they never cared for me," Leah claimed without a base.

"Leah, you know that's not true! If you don't farewell your family, you may regret it forever," Shani said.

"Fine. Goodbye! Are you happy now?" she shouted and made her own way to her new home.

Shani sighed. "I'm sorry, Dad, perhaps we can visit again," she suggested.

"Of course, considering this is really her home," Simba said bitterly, surprising his eldest daughter.

"Her home is where she chooses," she said. "C'mon, Aisha, let's go," she then told her sister, and all three visitors left.

Kiara cried tears of regret and failure. She believed that she did not show enough love to her youngest and most vulnerable daughter, but she wondered why she was so bitter and sudden about her decision.

"Simba, you have to do something," Kovu pleaded, also near tears for losing his daughter for the second time.

"Well, there's not much I can do, Malka is a very difficult negotiator," Simba said.

"WELL DO SOMETHING!" he yelled. Simba was shocked, as was all who heard the outburst.

"I..I'm sorry," Kovu whispered.

"It's okay, I understand, I will try to talk with Malka," Simba promised.

"It's just that I killed a hyena yesterday, and it wasn't an accident, I'm beginning to think I'm becoming Scar," Kovu admitted.

"Kovu, you are ten times a better lion than Scar, and your own scar is disappearing," Simba complimented, as Kovu's wound inflicted by Zira after Nuka's death was a mere scratch.

"Also, it was only a hyena," Simba chuckled, trying to put Kovu's mind at rest.

"You're right, I've done things Scar would never have the heart to do, he was the meaning of evil," Kovu said.

Nala had noticed something about the behaviour of her mate, daughter and grand-daughter and concluded that something was amiss.

"Simba, why did you speak to our daughter like that?" she asked.

Simba's mind was then poisoned with guilt. He had seen such little of his daughters and did not want them to think badly of him.

"I don't know, I have noticed that we have all changed, and I haven't been feeling myself recently," Simba admitted.

A tapping of a staff signalled the presence of Rafiki. "Simba, I have something to tell you," he said, gasping for air for he had travelled non-stop for many miles from his tree.

As Shani, Aisha and Leah were edging towards Malka's pride, Leah was a little behind, having to limp her way to her new home.

The further the lions progressed, the more their minds began to be cleared of hateful thoughts, and the more they began to regret their choice of words.

As she travelled, Leah pondered on what was her real home. Was it where her friends are, where everyone hates her, or where she is truly loved.

Leah wondered why what was said had been said, the recent behaviour of her brother and cousins (especially Koda) was out of character and tried to think of what could have caused it. Then she remembered what Rafiki had told her in his many stories of legend: A spirit duel, where the dead who were murdered return from death to exact revenge, or battle with their enemies, and some were said to possess the souls of the living. Perhaps a Spirit Duel was due, for Rafiki had said that they occur every century and the last one happened a century ago. The symptoms of a Spirit Duel was the negative change of people's behaviour and thoughts

Having concluded that a Spirit Duel and its effects were the cause of the odd behaviour of Koda and Vituo especially, she decided to turn back.

"Hey, Leah, what are you doing?" Shani called. "I'm sure she has her reasons," Aisha said to her sister.

"Malka's gonna kill us," Shani moaned. "Why would he kill the betrothed of his sons?" Aisha asked rhetorically. "Whatever," Shani responded.

 **A/N: Next we get to see the mystery lion. NEXT!**


	15. Possessed

**A/N: In the new version of this story, I decided to explore how Kopa copes with Roho's death.**

Tanabi had his work cut out in helping Kopa and Kiara in recovering emotionally from their losses, and even with the help of his parents, Kopa's grief was almost too much to bear, and it reminded Tanabi of his own grief when Kopa was thought to be dead himself.

"Kopa, are you feeling any better?" Tanabi asked but felt stupid for asking it.

"Oh, yes, of course, I'm splendid, just like anyone whose lost their cub, what the hell do you think?" Kopa asked angrily, trying to vent his deep grief.

"I know you feel awful, but perhaps the best way to remember your son is to move on, he wouldn't want you to be like this," Tanabi said.

"Oh, yeah, 'cause it's so easy to move on like nothing's happened, like this is just a little, insignificant moment in my life," Kopa said sarcastically.

"Kopa, it's okay to show that you are weak, then you can become stronger," Tanabi said. "I know what it's like to miss someone you love," he added.

"But do you? Do you really know what it is like to lose something that has a part of you inside them? No-one should have to bury their child! It's not right...  
it's not fair," he then broke down into a child-like weep and allowed Tanabi to hug him like he would when they were cubs.

"Shhh, it's alright," Tanabi hushed his brother, whose wailing brought a lump to his own throat.

After what felt like an hour of tears, Kopa finally stopped and found the strength to stand without the support of his brother.

"Better?" Tanabi asked. Kopa nodded.

"Thank you," he nuzzled his younger brother.

"Oh, you don't have to thank me, you did that yourself," Tanabi referred to Kopa's crying therapy.

"But you helped me," Kopa argued. "Without you, I would still be suffering in silence," he added.

"It's what brothers are for," Tanabi said.

* * *

The hyenas recovered from their injuries and losses, but as they promised revenge on the lions, an enemy of the enemy slowly walked into the Elephant Graveyard, wary of the barbaric hyenas, but he was a strong lion who was skillful with poisons, offensive and defensive fighting skills and other unnatural powers and wanted to help the hyenas to help himself.

As he viewed the horde of hyenas, he was greeted with growls. "Oh, give us a break," one hyena pleaded.

Just before the hyenas could attack, the lion stretched out his arm and a pulse of energy originated from his paw and caused the hyenas who jumped to freeze in mid-air.

He clenched his fist and the airborne hyenas fell with a thud. "Who...what are you?" Janja asked.

"My name is Kivuli, I am the son of your old friend, Scar. About my powers, I am a worshiper of Ibilisi, who has given me some of his power, and I come to you with an offer you cannot refuse," he explained.

"Oh, yeah? What?" Janja asked sceptically.

"The Pride Lands," Kivuli answered.

Janja looked at him sceptically. "I'm listening."

* * *

Kovu, a few days later, was patrolling the north-eastern border of what had been his home for over two years, and he couldn't shake off his fear of becoming an evil, jealous lion who wanted to kill to get what he wanted.

"Kovu, are you alright? You seem quiet," Kiara asked as she joined him after hunting.

"Yeah, it's just Malka. What right has he got to just keep our daughter?" he asked rhetorically but got an answer anyway.

"He has no right, and Dad is going to speak to him soon, he hasn't said when, though," Kiara said. "I'll ask him later," she added.

"On another note, I haven't seen any lions today," Kovu reported. As he and Kiara continued, Kovu stopped suddenly.

"Kovu? What's the matter now?" Kiara asked.

"I don't know, it's as if something, or someone, is trying to take over my mind," he said before collapsing and roaring in pain.

"KOVU!" Kiara screamed. Kovu was thrashing about on the floor. "Stay away from me!" he shouted.

"What's happening?" Kiara asked, frightened to say the least.

"I don't know," he said as the pain left him briefly. He breathed heavily but lay on the floor.

"Kovu, are you okay?" Kiara asked, and screamed in horror as she saw that Kovu's eye colour had changed, from green to blood red with a narrow slit of a pupil.

"Get out of here or I'm going to hurt you, I don't want to but something has taken over me," Kovu warned.

"Kovu..." Kiara began but was clawed in the face by a possessed Kovu.

Kovu gasped at what he did, and Kiara also gasped and held her wound, before looking at her paw pads, seeing that they had three thin lines of fresh blood, and blood continued to trickle from her face.

"Kiara, I'm sorry, I..." Kovu said, nearly crying.

"Stay away from me!" Kiara cried, and she ran away, the cold wind blowing against her face caused her face to sting even more.

"Kiara, wait!" Kovu shouted, but stopped again. Behind him approached the red-furred lion that was Kivuli.

"Go to Pride Rock, and leave with none alive, and you will be rewarded" he ordered.

"If you're so weak you can't dow what you were born to do, and that you have to rely on the dead to do it, then you are a pathetic excuse of a lion," Kivuli taunted.

"You attacked your own mate, what kind of a lion would do that to the mother of his cubs?" Kivuli asked rhetorically. Fury built up in Kovu's eyes, and before he could resist, Kivuli palmed Kovu's forehead, and then the possessed lion collapsed, before rising once more as a changed lion, and was intent on avenging Scar.

"What do you mean there's another son of Scar?" Simba asked.

"Cheating bastard," Vitani muttered. Thankfully it was unheard, she would usually be chided for her comments.

"Scar had another son, and his name is Kivuli. He is a shadow dat will loom over de Pride Lands until de Two Princes can defeat his minions," Rafiki explained.

"That usually means us," Tanabi said, referring to himself and his brother, Kopa.

"Correct," Rafiki confirmed. "You are de ones do defeat his hyena associates," Rafiki said.

Just then, Kiara came running into the cave, weeping and holding her wound.

"Kiara? What happened?" Simba asked.

"It was Kovu," Kiara answered as Nala checked her daughter's wounds, and Rafiki cracked open a gourd and prepared to treat her.

"WHAT?" Simba roared furiously. "How dare that...that lowlife harm my daughter!" he yelled.

"Dad, you don't understand," Kiara protested.

"No, I understand, I understand that Kovu is Scar reborn. I was wrong to think that he was reformed," Simba dismissed Kiara's protest and went outside to deal with Kovu.

"He's possessed!" Kiara cried.

"What?" Simba turned around.

"He said his mind was being taken over," Kiara repeated Kovu's words.

"It is Kivuli who is behind dis," Rafiki said.

"How is that possible? Only spirits can control the will of living things," Simba said.

"Dat is one of few dings I do not have de answer to," Rafiki admitted.

 **A/N: So, Kovu has been possessed, and unwillingly attacked Kiara. Kivuli has messed with Kovu, and all hell will break lose, and this chapter marks the beginning of Kopa and Tanabi's major involvement in this story. NEXT!**


	16. The Duel Starts

**A/N: And so we reach the first battle, the battle that the title suggests.**

The next day, Pride Rock was under a grey sky, and while no rain fell from these clouds, the colour of the clouds didn't help lighten the mood from yesterday.  
However, for one princess, it would be a day of many emotions.

Kiara still had mixed feelings for Kovu. Was he really possessed? Was he using it as an excuse to get the throne sooner? These were just two questions of many that filled her confused mind. Kiara's wounds healed but the moment remained in her memory for a long time afterwards.

As the day progressed, the animals grew restless, and the lions were quiet, but all were oblivious to what was to happen later that day: A Spirit Duel.

Simba decided to venture westwards to Rafiki's home; The Tree of Life. Rafiki jumped from a lower branch and landed with a loud thump, giving Simba a fright.

"Don't do that," Simba ordered.

"What can I do you for, my King?" Rafiki asked.

"I was wondering if you could help me because I haven't felt my usual self," Simba said.

Rafiki observed Simba and concluded that there was no physical problem but there was a spiritual matter.

"Come," Rafiki demanded and climbed the hidden stairs behind the facade of the tree.

"Rafiki will explain it all," he said.

"What is there to explain?" Simba asked.

"Your feelings, your behaviour," Rafiki listed. "It has changed because dere is a Spirit Duel due," he said.

"Spirit Duel..." the legendary event rolled off Simba's tongue. "Is that bad?" he asked.

"Only if de evil spirits are victorious," Rafiki revealed. "If dat happens, dey will haunt and torment de Pride Lands until de next Spirit Duel, a century in de future,"  
Rafiki revealed.

"That is bad," Simba commented. "Is there anything we can do?" he asked.

"Only one ding: Hope," answered the mandrill. "It is hope that motivates the good spirits, and it is despair dat feeds de evil ones, but de change in behaviour is a test of strength, will, determination and desire to hope," Rafiki explained.

When Simba reported a large increase of sudden and unexplained despair, he concluded that this was due to the imminent event Rafiki had spoken of and so he alerted his subjects, and they waited on the promontory of Pride Rock, reminding the pride that despite the fact that they were merely spectators, they must hope for victory. When he saw the dark dot on the horizon that was the controlled lion of Kovu, he growled as he knew that fighting may have to be done. Kovu still had some form of emotions but his physical movements were controlled remotely by Kivuli.

"Kovu, what is going on? Why did you attack Kiara" Simba asked furiously when the lion stood at the foot of Pride Rock.

"I'm sorry, Simba, but I can't control what I'm doing, this is the work of Kivuli," Kovu protested.

The grey clouds then darkened further, and forks of lightning hit the earth, causing the ground to rumble, and light, glowing figures approached the soon-to-be battlefield. The adult members of the pride went outside to see what was happening, and the sight was magnificent: Hundreds of white lights spread over the scene like flowers in a meadow, but these lights represented the souls of the dead lions who had returned to exact revenge on their murderers or to defeat their enemies.

The lights soon flashed, temporarily blinding the mortal lions, and they then saw the transparent bodies of the lions of old, and they then turned and ran in the direction of their opponents, and one duel attracted the attention of most: Scar versus Mufasa.

Every time a successful blow was dealt, the ghosts would flash, and grow dim every time. Over time, some insignificant lions departed the scene, but most Kings of old remained.

Simba retreated to the safety of his home, but Kovu edged towards Pride Rock, and then he lunged at the king.

Simba roared in pain and shock as Kovu bit into his mane. "Kovu, what are you doing?" he shouted as he twirled and managed to shake off his new enemy.

"This isn't me, it's Kivuli!" he repeated.

"You leave me with no choice, Kovu," Simba said. He wasn't one to stand by and let someone threaten his family.

Simba attempted to jump at Kovu, but the younger lion moved out of the way.

'Forgive me, Kiara,' Kovu thought as he feared he would end up killing Simba.

The dark lion lunged at Simba and tackled the king until he fell, but Simba clawed Kovu and quickly got back up.

Kopa and Tanabi heard the carnage outside, and when they went to help their father, but he saw that his sons were advancing to aid him.

"No, this is between me and him," Simba insisted and the evenly-fought battle continued. Simba, being the older lion, grew weary as the duel progressed, but his superiority in skills kept him within a good chance.

"Prepare to meet your death, again," Scar taunted his brother and his victim.

"You are the one who will fall," Mufasa said, and both engaged in a fight filled with claws, fangs and would-be blood.

Upon the promontory, which was a viewpoint of the spectacle, Timon and Pumbaa were encouraging the ones who had good intentions.

"Hey, Pumbaa, I'm pretty sure that ghost over there called you a pig," Timon teased.

"Well, that's a pretty brave ghost, he shall now suffer the wrath of MR. PIIIG!" he shouted and insult-induced energy allowed the warthog to run down the slope and charge at the ghost, but the simpleton went straight through it.

"Pumbaa, they're not solid beings...yet," Kopa sighed, and he knew that there was a chance that the ghosts could return to life.

Tanabi saw a blue dot in the sky, and as the wings of the dot grew more evident, he knew it was Zazu.

"Tanabi, there are three armies of hyenas heading for Pride Rock!" he shouted over the carnage.

As the bird said this, the glowing light that surrounded the bodies of the ghost lions started to dim.

Leah was walking into a dangerous Pride Lands, but she avoided the ghostly fighters and entered Pride Rock through the back.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" she asked quietly as to not get unwanted attention.

"Leah?" a female voice asked. "Asha?" Leah screamed in excitement as the two cubs ran into an embrace, and they bumped heads lovingly.

"What are you doing here?" Asha asked, puzzled that her sister had returned once more, even though she was so insistent on leaving, despite only just returning.

"I knew the boys' behaviour wasn't natural, we have to do something," Leah said.

"There's nothing we can do, ghosts fight their own battles, and we're only cubs," Asha listed.

"We are Pridelanders, and Kwanza's folk do not hide from a fight!" Leah shouted so that all of the cubs could be heard, and as soon as they tried to join the fight, they were scared off by ghosts that had got onto the promontory.

Leah then noticed that one of her cousins was missing and after thinking that he had ran elsewhere, she asked: "Where's Roho?". This question immediately darkened the mood within the cave.

Ashiki closed his eyes in grief and a tear glided down his face. Leah then felt guilty for asking that question after seeing the reaction.

"Oh, I'm sorry I brought it up," Leah said, guessing that something very bad had happened to him.

"What happened to him?" she asked.

"He was killed, by whom we do not yet know, but we found out he had died just after you left," Ashiki explained.

Leah gasped. "Oh, I'm so sorry, if only I hadn't left so soon," Leah said.

"No, it's our fault, we sent you away with our hurtful words," Koda assured his sister.

* * *

"Kopa, Zazu tells me there's three armies of hyenas, one coming from the north, and one each from east and west," Tanabi cried over the roars.

"Looks like it's our time to shine," Kopa laughed.

"I know a place where we can get help," Tanabi said, and the two dodged individual duels, and both laughed when they saw Timon and Pumbaa fleeing from the ghosts, screaming.

 **A/N: So, Tanabi is going to get help, but from where? Continue reading to find out.**


	17. The Dark Hour

**A/N: Enter the Lion Guard! I almost forgot about the eclipse marking the Spirit Duel, and it will be explained why the duel began before schedule.**

"Kion!" another bird cried. The leader of the Lion Guard turned to face the direction from which the voice came from. "What, Ono?" the lion replied.

"There's a legion of hyenas coming from the east!" the white egret exclaimed.

"I don't know what Kopa and Tanabi are doing, so I guess it's up to us. Lion Guard, follow me," Kion ordered. Ono flew ahead and his silhouette was caught in the waning light of the sun, nearing a total solar eclipse.

As the Lion Guard left the battlefield, the duel between Simba and Kovu moved towards the canyon.

"Kovu, you don't have to do this, you are better than this," Simba said between dodging, countering and absorbing blows in an attempt to get Kovu to revolt the possession.

"I'm sorry, Simba, Kivuli is too powerful, this will only end with death," Kovu said sadly. As Kovu repeatedly clawed at Simba, the older lion began to become weary,  
his strength was fading, his blows were not as effective. The blood that was draining from his body carried his strength and determination with it,  
and he was just meters from the edge of death.

Kovu stopped hitting, clawing, swiping and biting Simba, and began to push him further towards the edge. Simba attempted to leap at Kovu but Kivuli channelled some force through Kovu, preventing the king from moving forwards at all.

Kovu's mouth moved, but Kivuli's voice came from it. "Your death is upon you, Simba, you may as well die with dignity," he said.

"I will not die at the will of a lowly rogue. This is a holy land of our ancestors, and me and my heirs will protect it until the ending of this world," he said.

"I am not a lowly rogue, I am the son of Scar the Great, and I am your murderer." Kovu then hit Simba, who slipped down the gorge. He quickly glanced at the utter vertical drop below and gave a childish whimper for fear of death ravaged his mind.

"SIMBA!" Nala screamed as she attempted to rush to the aid of her mate, but she was stopped as Kivuli, through Kovu, held up a paw, creating a force that repelled Nala from Simba like the same ends of two magnets.

Kivuli/Kovu dug his claws into the wrists of Simba and prepared to deliver the fatal blow, but it did not come. "I'm better than this," Kovu whispered. "I'm better than you, Kivuli," he said.

Kovu's eyes then flickered as Kivuli retook control of the lion. He saw the fear and memory of Mufasa's death in Simba's terrified eyes, and he whispered at a merciless length: "Long live the king."

He then sheathed his claws, the only things keeping Simba alive, and in mock surprise, he said "Whoops," and the helpless lion fell down the canyon like a boulder about to be turned to dust upon impact, though what all did not know was that there was a river that flowed at the floor. It was the same river that Leah had been swept away.

"SIMBA!" Nala yelled and rushed to the edge. The act of Kivuli leaving Kovu's body almost pulled him over the edge as well, but Nala pushing Kovu aside kept him alive,  
and he realised what he had done. 'Please be okay', she thought.

Nala then turned to Kovu, who had shock etched into his bloodied face. "What have I done?" he asked himself.

"It's okay, Kovu, you couldn't have stopped him," Nala assured.

"But I could have, I was so close," Kovu said.

"If he is dead, I would not be able to live with myself, I could not live with the knowledge that I am weak enough to be corrupted by evil. If he is dead, I will not ask for forgiveness from you or Kiara, for I would not do it myself," Kovu said.

"Kovu, you were corrupted by a force that has never been seen in these times, if you wouldn't have been corrupted, it would have been someone else," Nala insisted.

"Now we must hope in Simba, as he will hold de key to survival," Rafiki walked towards the lions after noticing Simba had fallen.

* * *

"Tell me again, why have we come to a tree when the Pride Lands are in danger?" Kopa asked his brother, who was looking under the roots of a tree that bore no leaves and few branches.

"This is where help will come from," Tanabi claimed. "What? Bugs are your idea of help? They're my idea of a snack," Kopa said as he broke off a branch infested with grubs.

"Ooh, utamu!" he exclaimed and downed the grubs, and belched.

"You're disgusting," Tanabi sighed and dug himself under the tree. "And I'm not on about grubs, I'm looking for ghosts," Tanabi added, as his brother said this,  
Kopa stopped munching

"Ghosts?" he asked for confirmation, a couple of bugs escaping his opened mouth at the same time. He swallowed and then asked, "You think I want to be around any more ghosts after today?"

"You're gonna have to because I'm going to try to get them to help us," Tanabi revealed.

"Oh, I get it, fight fire with fire, but won't that make more fire?" Kopa asked, and after he received no answer, he shrugged.

As Tanabi finished digging, he positioned himself so that he could slide down an entrance into the roots. "Are you with me?" he asked.  
Kopa nodded enthusiastically as his inner cub took over and then his brother slid down into the roots.

Kopa chuckled and vocalised his excitement as he too slid down into the roots, and Tanabi put a finger to his brother's lips when Kopa landed next to him.

A croaky voice made Kopa jump. "Who enters the Tree of the Dead?" it asked.

"The one who bears Kiburi's soul," Tanabi replied, and as Kopa was turning to see where the voice came from, he heard the breathing come from everywhere, and when he looked behind, he saw a transparent, white glowing ghost.

"You are the one who enters our domain?" the ghost asked. Kopa shook his head nervously and pointed behind him.

"What is it you want, Tanabi, son of Simba?" the ghost asked.

"Our land is under attack from hyenas, and we have no allies willing to fight with us," Tanabi explained the situation.

"Why should we leave our peaceful after-life to fight a war that is not a guaranteed victory?" the ghost questioned.

"Because with you, victory is as certain as the sunrise," was Tanabi responded.

"You claim to possess the soul of Kiburi, prove it," the ghost demanded.

Tanabi closed his eyes, and the dark shelter grew lighter, and an immense blue glow came from Tanabi's paw, and as he raised it, the King's Stone formed on his palm.

"What say you?"

 **A/N: NOOO! SIMBA'S DEAD! The last bit was inspired by Aragorn attempting to persuade the Army of the Dead to fight for him.**

 **PS I hope you like the way I set out the content in each chapter. There are fewer chapters but they are bigger, meaning I can fit more action into them. However, a battle in which no-one will die was difficult to make excitement from, but in the end, I just added more detail.**


	18. Fightback

**A/N: I'm sorry, Simba fans for killing off your favourite character, or did I?**

The current of the river carried Simba's motionless body for many miles, and he made a journey similar to that of Leah's voyage just a week ago, and when the current was weak enough to deposit Simba's body, something incredible happened.

Simba had drifted in and out of consciousness, and as he succumbed to permanent sleep, his pupil illuminated. He saw vivid pictures of hundreds of hyenas, his murderer and son of Scar, Kivuli, and where his fate was to be decided, it was not on the river bend, it was in a battle at a later date.

Simba's death was short-lived for he woke up. He breathed fast and easier than before, something about him seemed younger, something similar to Kopa's gift of immortality was granted to the king, and now he knew what he must do: Get aid from Malka.

* * *

Kopa and Tanabi hid behind a rock in front of the Tree of the Dead, and as Tanabi glanced over the top, his brother asked: "How many are there?", referring to the hyenas.

"A lot," Tanabi bluntly responded.

"They're close enough. Let's go," Kopa whispered as to not attract attention before they wanted it.

The two lions roared at the legion of hyenas, and the leader raised a paw to signal the ceasing of motion.

"You will go no further, you will not enter the Pride Lands," Tanabi said.

The hyenas cackled hysterically. "You and what army?" the hyena general asked, crying tears of laughter.

"This army," Kopa answered quietly, smirked and through him charged a ghost and behind him formed hundreds of lion spirits.

As the ghost army charged, the hyenas screamed in terror, and all lions, both dead and alive, made easy work of disposing of the hyenas' lives. It took less than ten minutes to kill the hyenas, and then the lions retreated to Pride Rock.

* * *

At Pride Rock, a remarkable phenomenon occurred: the competitors of the Spirit Duel had been fighting for so long, they had returned to mortal form.

For the first time in years, Mufasa was breathing. He inhaled the cold and smooth air, but as he enjoyed the oxygen that fed his blood, he was distracted by his brother.

"Prepare to die again, brother," Scar taunted, but Mufasa remained unmoved, for one of Kivuli's hyena armies had just arrived.

"Get 'im," one of them shouted and about ten hyenas dived at the treacherous lion and the evil lion was torn to shreds.

'Ew', Mufasa thought as he grimaced, but felt a little down for he had once again lost his brother, for his brother was truly lost for the third time, once after Ahadi's death when his dark path had culminated, again when Scar killed the former king and again just now.

Mufasa retreated and as he looked at the many pairs of lions who prepared to fight each other, he roared to get their attention and he got what he sought.

"Fight not for what has happened, fight not for your differences, unite for what is happening now and what we have in common, a vast horde of hyenas threatens our kingdom and we will not let our differences allow them to destroy our land," he shouted, and the lions roared in agreement.

"There will come a day when the line of Kiburi ends, but it is not this day!" Ahadi, Mufasa's and Taka's father, after defeating his hyena enemy (the previous matriarch of the clan that was banished to the Elephant Graveyard by Kwanza, the First King of the Second Age of the Pride Lands, rallied his fellow lions and rulers.

"This is the day that we fight together against the greatest enemy of this time!" he yelled, and in the momentum of the confidence and courage of the lions as they were motivated by the last two kings, they charged at the hyenas who were not brutally devouring Scar for a second time, resulting in a bloody clash of teeth, claws and muscle.

* * *

Simba expected to limp after the injuries sustained during his duel with Kovu, though the pain did not come and even though he wondered why that was so, his attention was focused on his aim. Remembering the unfamiliar voice that came from Kovu's mouth, he believed that Kovu was indeed possessed by his cousin, and so he held no grudges with the mate of his daughter.

He travelled from where he woke to Malka's lair, which was a short trek of about an hour. As Shani and Aisha noticed their father's own surprise arrival, they bounded towards him excitedly.

"Dad? What are you doing here?" Shani asked. "Have you seen Leah?" Aisha asked.

"No, I thought she was with you," Simba replied. His twin daughters shook their heads. "Never mind, where is Malka? I need to talk to him," he said.

"I am here, old friend," Malka announced as he was walking up to the lionesses.

"Malka, you may find what I have to say hard to believe, but I have just woken from death," Simba announced to the gasp of shock from his daughters.

"Are you okay, Dad? Who did it?" Shani asked. "It was Kivuli, the rogue who has threatened our peace, who had nearly killed me, and now I ask for your aid,"  
Simba explained.

"Tell me, why should we help your cause, while you fail to help ours?" Malka asked.

"I really am sorry about that, but if you help me, I promise to help you in return," Simba promised. "What say you?"

 **A/N: If that's not a plot twist, I don't know what is. Let me know if you liked this and any other chapters.**


	19. Sacrifice

**A/N: So, Simba isn't dead, but that doesn't mean we won't see death in this story.**

Kopa and Tanabi and their new followers joined Mufasa and the other lions, and after a quick introduction with Mufasa and other former kings, they formed a solid line of muscle and teeth and Mufasa rallied the spirits of the lions. "If this line shall break, so shall the kingdom!"

"Will we show mercy to our enemy?" he asked. "NO!" was the response. "CHARGE!" the former king yelled and all of the lions ran at the hyenas.

The clash was bloody, toothful and fierce, but more hyenas were killed than lions. Mufasa would claw faces of hyenas left, right and centre. This would allow other lions to execute the killing blow(s). Kopa dodged blows of hyenas and then tackled them to the ground and slit their throat without suffering.

Tanabi used the power given to him by Mufasa to great effect. Only a single blow would send a hyena flying through the air and instantly killing them.

The Lion Guard sneaked behind the third hyena army, and Kion knew things about his Roar that his friends were oblivious to. One giant Roar like he used to temporarily extinguish Ibilisi had used half of his power and could cost his life, but it was worth it.

Kion broke his own order to stay hidden and attack with surprise, and it almost cost his own life.

"Kion, what are you doing?" Fuli asked, remaining quiet.

"Fuli, I'm going to save us, my friend, and it may cost me my life, so I will say this to all of you. You have all been great friends and even greater soldiers of the Pride Lands," Kion said.

"'Til the Pride Lands' end," Kion began. "Lion Guard defend!" the others finished, and Kion smiled before confronting his fate.

"Janja, when are we gonna get there? I'm starvin'?" Chungu whined like the childish, foolish and dim-witted hyena he was.

"We're nearly there," Janja said.

"You said that ten minutes ago," Chungu wailed as hunger ate away his strength and determination.

"I said it so you would shut up!" Janja shouted impatiently.

"Are we really nearly there?" Cheezi asked.

"Yes, look, it's over there," Janja sighed, having set off from somewhere Pride Rock was not a sight but a prospect.

"Is it really that small?" Cheezi asked in disappointment, having heard magnificent stories of the noble and grand Pride Rock.

"No, furbrains, we're just really far away," Janja said. "Sometimes I consider acquainting myself with you was the worst mistake of my life," Janja admitted.

Clouds gathered overhead, and the fiercest was about to become the bravest. "Hey!" he yelled to get the hyenas attention.

The hyenas turned to face Kion. "You want food?" he asked impolitely, having heard Chungu's whine of hunger.

"Ooh, yes please, I'm starving," one of the dim hyenas said.

"Well eat this!" he yelled before conjuring all of his remaining power, and from his mouth came an ear-splitting noise, and because he used all of his power, the mark on Kion's shoulder began to fade, and so did the other members' marks.

As Kion almost broke his jaw and ruptured his ear drum in channelling his power into the deafening Roar of the Elders, memories of his life flooded through his mind.  
Enjoying moments of fun with Kiara, learning of his supposedly dead oldest brother, only to meet him; the proud moment he became the leader of the Lion Guard, among countless experiences of danger when helping keep the Circle of Life in balance. They soon faded as Kion's vision became blurred and darkness took over his sight and he lost consciousness.

The energy produced made little work of destroying rocks and hills that separated Kion from his target, and a horizontal avalanche was heading towards the hyenas with a great velocity and nothing could stop it. The ground rumbled as if a massive earthquake had split land in two, and all of the hyenas were flattened by the mud, dirt and rocks. When the dust cleared, Ono tried to see where Kion was. Even as the Keenest of Sight, the thick cloud of dust was almost impossible to see through, but when the dust finally cleared after a minute of utter suspense, Ono's sight fell upon one of his worst fears: Kion's motionless body.

"Hapana!" he yelled. "Kion's down!" he informed the former Lion Guard members.

They rushed to Kion's side, and Bunga began to shake his friend's arm and pull his ear.

"Kion? C'mon, Kion, buddy, you gotta get up," Bunga's voice began to crack and liquid came from his eyes. "Kion! Please!" Fuli begged, tears streaming down her eyes.

When all hope seemed to be lost, Kion's friends bowed their heads, but they heard something. A cough.

"Kion?" Bunga asked hopefully, and Kion coughed his way back to consciousness.

"KION!" Bunga yelled ecstatically. "We thought you were dead," Beshte said.

"No, I'm not dead, but I'm not well," Kion said with a croaky voice.

"Right, let's get you home," Beshte said and Kion lifted himself onto the hippo's back.

The lions at Pride Rock were outnumbered, and some lions that were overcome with wounds from teeth, savagery and barbaric slaughter, their bodies left the mortal world. These were the lions that had returned from death, but Mufasa wasn't one of them, and his closest ancestors and descendants continued to fight.

The dark sky was being lightened by the coming sun, and unbeknownst to his subjects, the King was returning with aid.

 **A/N: Kion has now lost his power, but Simba is returning with help, but the troubles are still not over.**


	20. The Return of the King

**A/N: The idea of the 'Friendly Five' does not belong to me, I can't remember who possesses that great idea from the top of my head, I'll credit them as soon as possible** **. Who would have thought it? Enid Blyton mixed with The Lion King?**

 **P.S. watch?v=ESnMzQZubKg I suggest you listen to this soundtrack that helped me to write this chapter. From 1:41 is the most influential part and if you have seen The Two Towers, the experience will be much more epic if you imagine Gandalf, Eomer and the Rohirrim riding down the hill but with the said lions below instead.**

A booming roar echoed through the fresh morning air, though the roar did not come from the ruckus at Pride Rock, but from a hill nearby. The rising sun was blocked by the silhouette of someone who was feared to be dead.

"Son," Mufasa whispered with pride as he paused his fighting, recognising the roar from observing Simba's ascent to the throne. He then saw another lion approach the top of the hill, then another.

"I don't believe it, it's Simba," Nala shouted joyfully.

"And Malka, Chumvi, Tojo...it's the Friendly Five all over again," Sarabi exclaimed, remembering the friendship and loyalty they showed to each other, but also how Scar's reign ruined the friendship.

"CHARGE!" Simba yelled, and the King, Malka, Chumvi, Tojo, Tama, Imani, Sadaka, Simba's daughters and other lionesses from Malka's pride appeared, running down the hill.

Some hyenas ran to fight the newcomers, but the sun crested over the hill, and the hyenas were dazzled and blinded, leaving the lions to make easy kills as they ran down the hill.

It took not ten minutes for all of the hyenas to be slaughtered, and some of the once-evil spirits departed as soon as they were no longer needed, but lions such as Mufasa remained.

"Simba," Mufasa called, and his son froze. He slowly turned around, and sprinted towards his father with a massive grin on both faces.

Simba jumped into Mufasa's embrace, and both cried tears of joy. "I've missed you so much," Simba said in a muffled voice as he cried into his father's mane.

Sarabi then embraced the lions she once thought had left her life forever. "Mufasa, is it really you?" she asked in disbelief.

"Yes, my love, I have returned," Mufasa said. "How can I be sure this is not a spell of my imagination, or an illusion of desire?" Sarabi asked.

"You can be sure because of this," Mufasa said and he passionately kissed his wife.

"Ugh, get a room," Kopa laughed.

"Kopa, I believe that I saved your life once," Mufasa said. Kopa nodded and the younger lion politely shook his hand, probably something Tanabi would do.

"I have heard much of you, but I never though I would meet you in person. It is an honour to meet you," Kopa said. "Please, no need for formalities," Mufasa chuckled.

"We have so much to talk about," Simba said. His father then turned to Mohatu. "Do I have time, grandfather?" Mufasa asked.

Mohatu shook his head. "Oh, please, let me have one day, just one day is all I ask," Mufasa begged.

"The way you were parted was truly tragic, and the timing was...just wrong," Mohatu said. "We will grant you two days with your family."

Mufasa immediately wrapped his arms around his grandfather.

Kovu then approached Simba. He expected some hostility, but received praise instead. "Kovu, before you ask, I don't need to forgive you, you didn't know what you were doing,  
yet you showed resilience against what is apparently a great, powerful threat," Simba said. Kovu then apologized to Kiara, who also gave a similar response.

A few hours later, after introductions, well deserved hugs and catching up, Zazu came flying into the cave, panting for air.

"Sire...rogue...from the north," he squawked.

"Kivuli," Simba growled.

 **A/N: From happiness and return from death to more ending of lives...perhaps.**


	21. Kovu's Revenge

**A/N: Alas, we come to the third to last chapter of this great story. Please review if you have enjoyed this fiction, and please give constructive reviews (not like 'This is great'). Something like highlighting things you liked in the story and suggest improvements on writing style. My aim is to write like the great 'Inklings' such as C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.**

 **P.S. In this update I have included a sequence that was inspired by the scene in The Two Towers where Saruman discusses a new world with Sauron. I also included a climactic battle which is not only better but makes more sense. The Seeing Stone is of course inspired from the Palantír.**

The darkness of Uchawi Forest protected Kivuli from the sunlight that only illuminated the top of the enchanted black clouds. Here the bastard son of Scar was planning his next action for he was confident enough in the size of his armies that he remained in the Cave of Sorcery, where dark deeds were planned and executed.

"The tide has turned. The Pride Lands will fall, so shall the Kingdom of Kaskazini," Kivuli predicted the fate of the kingdoms of Simba and Malka. He said this to a white glowing sphere made of pure crystal. It was an ancient tool of communication, one Seeing Stone of seven, crafted by the deities and gifted to the Kings of Lions to mainatain peace and partnership diplomatically. However, Kivuli stole the stone from a pride who had resided just north of the forest.

"Who now has the strength, courage and foolishness to stand between our destiny? Who is the one, if any, to prevent our impending success?" he asked and the stone changed colour from a peaceful and dormant white to a restless and molten red.

Kivuli closed his eyes and blocked any unrelated thoughts in an attempt to communicate with Ibilisi. This was possible because Kivuli manipulated the power of the stone to access the mind of Ibilisi.

A mere second before Kivuli would get an answer, he was disturbed. The one who made this fateful error was Kusita, a lion who was taken under the dark wing of Kivuli after his parents died, or so Kusita was told. The truth was that he was stolen as Kivuli saw potential in him.

"My lord," Kusita said, and Kivuli opened his eyes of silent fury after being interrupted just before the vital moment and so preventing the answer from reaching his ears.

Kivuli breathed angrily as Kusita noticed that dust, stones and small rocks fell from the ceiling of the cave.

"Kivuli, are you content?" he asked foolishly for this only increased the anger of his master and the risk of his death rose with it.

"YOU FOOL! YOU INTERRUPTED THE DARK LORD HIMSELF! IF YOU WEREN'T MY FAVOURED SUBJECT, YOU WOULD BE DEAD AT THE BLINK OF MY EYES!" he yelled so all could hear. He then stretched his arm and Kusita was dragged across the floor like a ragdoll.

"I'm sorry, I have news!" Kusita gagged, being held by the throat.

Kivuli released his grip on the now gasping lion. "If you value your life then you will tell me the news that I want to hear," Kivuli said.

When Kusita found enough air to speak, he said: "The hyenas have been defeated, Simba and Malka's Prides united as one army, as well as the spirits returning from the dead," Kusita said the opposite of what his master wished to hear.

Kivuli had a remarkable ability to contain his anger, but the news bad enough for Kivuli to violently toss Kusita with unnatural force across the cave with his Godly power and stormed out of the cave with anger dictating his pace.

"Do you need my services?" Kusita asked after recovering from being chucked from one end of the cave to the other.

"No," Kivuli firmly said. "I have plans for your future," he reasoned. Kusita was confused as to what his master meant. Was it that he was going to kill him or send him on a mission?

"And to think that triggering the Duel earlier would distract them," he said to himself.

The lions at Pride Rock waited for the impending arrival of their enemy, Kivuli approached Pride Rock in fury, he had been so confident that his three hyena armies would defeat the armies of Simba and Malka, he would not even attend the battle, but he was forced to fight.

When the lion arrived, he was mocked by Timon. "Hey, we're up here, and you're down there!" he chanted. "What ya gonna do?" the meerkat would ask.

Kivuli rolled his eyes. 'I needn't take this from a meerkat,' he thought. So he glared at the meerkat, and some force dragged Timon by his knees to the edge of Pride Rock.

"TIMON!" Simba cried. He went to help his friend, but Kivuli warned against this. "You make another step, your meerkat friend will fall," he warned.

"Goodbye, cruel world," Timon cried as he thought that this was his end.

"What's with the drama? He's just a meerkat," Kivuli laughed. "He is much more than a meerkat, he is one of my friends, he is worth ten of you," Simba spoke of his friendship of Timon that lasted for most of his life. Kivuli laughed. "Now I've seen everything," Kivuli said.

"You haven't seen this," Tanabi said, and held up a paw and kept it there until a blinding blue light turned into the King's Stone. 'How is it that he gets the Stone?  
He's not even the King!' Kivuli thought.

"You are to leave this land and never return," the one who possessed Kiburi's soul said. As Kivuli was neglecting his concentration on Timon, Asha sneaked to the edge of Pride Rock and pulled him from danger.

Kivuli gasped when he saw Asha saving Timon, and so he narrowed his eyes and Asha was pulled by some force to Kivuli's paws.

"ASHA!" Kiara cried. Everyone stood still, not wanting their princess to be killed.

"You give me what is rightfully mine, or this runt dies," Kivuli warned as he rested a paw on Asha's head, but he was again oblivious to Koda sneaking up behind him,  
and then the cub pounced and scratched into his mane, but the small pincers of claws did not do damage to Kivuli, but ended up doing damage to himself. Asha used the opportunity wisely and swiftly escaped.

Kivuli twirled around to get to Koda, and when he tore the cub from his back, he clawed and tossed Koda repeatedly, breaking bones and vessels, tearing skin and muscle!

Kovu was not one to stand by and watch any of his children die, so he decided to race down the slope and before Kivuli could deliver the final blow, he felt a blow himself as Kovu tackled his former possessee.

Kovu bit into Kivuli's neck and his teeth penetrated the skin, drawing blood. Kivuli clawed Kovu's muzzle, removing a couple of whiskers.

With all his might, Kovu swiped his enemy near the eyes, which allowed him to sink his teeth into the neck once more, but the paw that did not protect Kivuli's eye was used to channel his power and throw Kovu into the pillar of rock that supported the promontory. He revealed the bloody wound on his left eye as he menacingly approached Kovu.

He streched out his arm and kept Kovu pinned against the rock and with the other he channeled his power to create an excrusiating pain in Kovu's head. He screamed in agony as Kivuli laughed in evil delight. He stopped however when he heard a large thud that came from above. He looked to the rock above his head and he saw that a crack had developed thanks to Tanabi using his powerful gift to destroy the edge of the rock that Kivuli stood under. Before he could react, the rock fell and crushed his body.

Recovering from his wounds and pains, Kovu glared upwards and saw the lion who saved his life. Astonished and confused, Kovu could only hang his jaws open.

"You're welcome," Tanabi said.

"Koda!" Kiara cried and sprinted down the slope of Pride Rock to get to her only son, so too did the others.

"Please, please be okay," Kiara whimpered.

"Koda, please, wake up," Leah begged. "Don't leave me when I've come back."

"Leah, the light...it's so inviting," Koda said.

"No, don't go to the light of death," Leah pleaded.

Koda's eyes flickered, and then closed before his head dropped.

"No..." Leah whispered, and started to cry while her mother was in tears. Kovu wrapped an arm around his mate's shoulder to try to comfort her, but not much would comfort the pain of the death of one's child. Kopa and Tanabi displayed sad faces as Asha hugged Leah.

"Leah..." a croaky voice asked quietly.

The said person gasped and her eyes widened in disbelief as Koda coughed and woke up.

She then embraced her brother gently, and the other lions surrounded the miracle child.

"Don't ever leave me again," Leah demanded. "I'll try not to," Koda chuckled.

Kiara and Kovu hugged their children, and Malka saw that this was her home.

"Simba, I offer you my most sincere apologies, I had no right to keep Leah from her family," the lion admitted.

"Leah's home is where she chooses," Simba said, and all turned to Leah.

"And I choose to stay here," she announced. "But I can visit, right?"

Malka nodded. "Of course, think of it as a second home," he said.

A/N: This is a very teasing story, is it not? The next chapter will see an interaction between Mufasa and his heirs. NEXT!


	22. Near Death

**A/N: No, I have not forgotten about Kion. This chapter explains the fate of Kion. This is the penultimate chapter.**

The celebration of victory was a time of otherwise impossible meetings between Mufasa and Kopa and Tanabi and their family. Rafiki too was mildly surprised at Mufasa's return. However, the joy was short-lived when Ono the white egret landed at Simba's feet with a negative expression.

"Your majesty," Ono began as he sighed. "Kion...isn't doing too good," the bird announced.

"What do you mean?" Simba asked Ono to be more specific.

"He's...unconscious...he took out the third legion of hyenas with his roar, but he lost his power, and he's dying!" Ono explained sadly.

"Look! There he is!" Kopa shouted and pointed at the lion who was being carried by Beshte, while Fuli and Bunga were encouraging Kion to stay awake.

"We're nearly home, Kion, you're gonna be okay," Bunga said hopefully.

"Kion?" Fuli asked. No response, not even a breath was heard. "Speak to me!" she cried, but the lion's eyes were closed.

"Oh, no! No! Don't die, please!" Bunga begged. "C'mon Big B, faster," the honey badger ordered.

"Alright, Little B," Beshte said and increased his speed carefully so that Kion would not fall off.

All of the close relatives of Kion ran to the former Lion Guard, and when Rafiki arrived, Beshte carefully dropped Kion.

'I feared that this duty would kill him as a cub, not now', Simba thought.

As Rafiki put an ear to the lion's chest, he sighed sadly and shook his head.

"NO!" Tanabi cried as he ran to his brother and lightly pushed Rafiki out of the way.

"Don't be...dead," he wept and cried into his mane. Kopa too audibly cried along with his parents.

But then Tanabi stopped crying, and a light came from his paw, and when he brought it to his face, he saw that the King's Stone had formed.

'This could save him,' he thought, and immediately placed on of Kion's paws on the stone and placed it on his heart.

" _Kurudi kwa maisha yeye ambaye amefariki._  
 _Kumwokoa kutoka kwa njia ya mwisho ya mwanga  
_ _Kufanya moyo wake kuwapiga tena_."

This was the spell that Tanabi recited as a tear fell onto his paw, and the stone shone brightly again, before dimming. The light seemed to sink into Kion's chest,  
and after a few seconds, the eyes of Kion opened.

"Tanabi! You saved my life!" he exclaimed and wrapped his arms around his older brother, who bore a wide grin of relief.

 **A/N: Kion will not die...yet. Though not everyone is immune or safe from death and its impacts in this saga and those who have survived this story may yet die within the saga.**

 **On another note, the translation for the spell is: Return to life, he who has died. Save him from the final path of light (death and journey to the afterlife). Make his heart beat again.**

 **Also, I planned to make this the last chapter, but I decided to move some material from this chapter to the final one, and the next one will be the final one.**

 **Review if you have enjoyed this chapter and previous ones, and suggest improvements if necessary.**


	23. The Last Goodbye

**A/N: As promised, here is the final chapter of this story, but it is by no means the final chapter of this saga. I have three more stories planned!**

The next evening, Mufasa's time on earth was nearly spent, and so he gathered the pride so that he could give them a personal individual farewell.

The first goodbye was to Simba. "My son, you have made me so proud, prouder than most of their son, you have led this kingdom out of hardships and retained the peace, and any problems have been dealt with brilliantly, and you may have doubted your ability to rule after my untimely departure, but know that everyone makes mistakes, but you have come through every time and become a stronger lion."

"I'm going to miss you, Dad," Simba cried as father and son hugged each other. "We will meet again, Simba, when death will reunite us," Mufasa promised.

Mufasa then turned to Kopa and Tanabi. "Kopa, you will carry on the legacy of the Pride Lands after your father comes to his passing, and you will be a fine king and a worthy successor of your father," he prophesied to his eldest grandson.

"Tanabi, you are a brave, smart and kind lion, and will play just as an important role in the future of the Pride Lands, there is more to you than you know, and you are capable of great things," Mufasa said, implicitly hinting of a future of further hardship and suffering.

Mufasa spoke to Kion next. "Kion, like I said to your brother, there is more to you than being the leader of the Lion Guard. I have watched you grow from a playful cub to a responsible adolescent and the lion who would die for his friends like yesterday, you would be a worthy king had you been born first." Kion smiled and tried to block out jealous thoughts for he feared he would be like Scar since he was a cub.

"My dear grand-daughter," he said to Kiara. "You have united prides and believed in your love, and have shown qualities of a fine queen, Simba do you have something to announce?" Mufasa described his grand-daughter and then asked Simba with a wink.

Simba nodded and approached his daughter, breaking the semi-circle. "Kiara, I have decided to allow you to rule a part of the Pride Lands along with Kovu. You may name it as you wish, and you may make the laws...as long as they're fair," Simba explained and chuckled when he said the last bit.

"You really think we're ready?" Kiara asked on her and her mate's behalf.

"I know so," Simba responded and was then tightly hugged her father catching him off-guard.

"Thank you, Daddy," she said with tears of joy forming in her eyes.

The first stars of night appeared, and as Mufasa noticed this, he sighed. "Everyone, my time has come," he announced and everyone gave their final hugs and goodbyes before the former king faded and dissolved into the air and his star shone brightly once again. It was the final death of Mufasa, a much more peaceful and deserving one this time.


End file.
